Feather of Maat
by Oxymora
Summary: The quartet of penguins worked together as a team for a valuable time by now. However, they don't seem to know much about Skipper. That is when his past catches up. – Finished. Sequel online: "File Number: Tippy Top Secret"
1. Chapter 1: Allianz

Here is the first chapter of my first PoM story. I need to say (like Conan Doyle) that the opinions of the characters are not mine. Not always the author shares the view of things with the characters in his stories, okay? In addition this is my first FF in English, so thanks for betareading, KJ!

But enough with my talk! Enjoy! ^.^

Yours Oyamora

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of PoM

* * *

**Chapter 1: Allianz**

"I am awfully sorry to disturb you, sir, but here is someone who would like to talk to you.", said a very deep bowing fiordland penguin.

"What is it, Tawaki?", asked a deep voice behind the big, black back of a pad executive chair in front of several middle sized flat screens. They were the only light in the gloomy room and showed different places all over the world, "I'm very busy here as you can see."

"That's why I'm here.", next to his guide appeared a Humboldt penguin out of the shadows.

There was a short pause due to the impudence of the new comer who just sneaked into the chamber. One could feel the anger of the leading penguin, but then he had to admit to himself, that that penguin used to be very good. He didn't notice him until he had spoken up.

"And you are?", asked the voice still not visible to anyone.

"Call me a friend. We have the same enemy."

The pad executive chair turned. The 'eyebrows' of the new comer rose a little bit, when he could see the silhouette of the dangerous und feared head.

"Do not judge a book by its cover.", he reprehended in his deep voice, "So, please explain yourself. I really don't have much time. You see, as far as I'm informed you're…"

"Indeed. But I… we are birds of justice. We want to bring that filthy betrayer to court martial. His crime must be punished!", his eyes showed deep hatred, "They don't believe your word, but we also saw him. And we are the ones who know him best. We CAN find him."

It was not visible for his subordinates or his quest, but first the eyes of the leader stare in incomprehension until his mind could connect the pieces. Then they changed into a sinister gleam. He smiled. This was going to be better than his best daydreams. His blood flew faster while the first contours of a plan crossed his mind.

"Of course.", he said, more to himself, than to his new companion. But the Humboldt penguin thought it referred to him. Therefore he nodded.

The mind of the leader turned back to the present. This could also be a trap.

"So, if it is that easy for you to find him, why do you want to become ally?", he asked tongue-in-cheek.

"To follow a trace, you first need one. He could be anywhere around the world and we neither have equipment nor the time to search everything. And you have the possibility to find a trace but you are not trained to hunt the dear down. We complement one another."

The bird sitting at the chair was quite. It was humiliating that a little soldier did find his little weak point, but if that was the price for bringing his enemy down he was going to pay it. He was searching that enemy of his nearly two years by now. A long time, but perhaps this Humboldt penguin and his companion could finally find and catch him. And if they were spies, he could easily get rid of them after he used them to achieve his goal.

His first chuckle grew louder and louder until it became a great laughter.

"Tawaki, get something to celebrate the new alliance.", he ordered.

The fiordland penguin bowed and just left to get some fresh water and overripe grapes when suddenly a siren sounded. The chair turned around and both penguins looked tensely at one of the upper flat screens. It was a broadcast of a US news channel and the anchorman commentated: "This can only be descriped as a hoop of heat."

"Looks like Dr. Blowhole affiliates too.", the leader commented.

---

At the same time but a very long distance away four penguins fought against their old enemy Dr. Blowhole. He already could taste sweet triumph – the plan was working marvellous, Kowalski had no idea how to anticipate the disaster and that vexatious Skipper nearly got crushed by another brilliant invention called chrome claw. One could really say Dr. Blowhole got the upper… flipper – but then this stupid little prosimian turned against him and before the evil dolphin knew what happened he was already defeated… again.

"You've done a good job today, ringtail.", said Skipper.

But as usual no one in the zoo believed their story.

The day after Skipper was drinking his cup of coffee when Private waddled past him with an aggrieved expression on his face.

"What's with those sad eyes, young Private? We've won."

"Yes. But Marlene and the others think we are liars, Skippah. Why don't they believe in Dr. Blowhole and about our mission as agents?", he looked desperate. One could see he was hurt because no one believed him.

Skipper knew how Private felt. His young cadet had done a good job, but civilians could never see this. They live in their common, little life, pretended save from all that cold blood fighting behind the curtain called Democracy. They did not understand that the peace they lived in was due to the brave soldiers – like them – who defend it.

"It's better they don't.", he finally said, "Sometimes the truth must not be said."

Suddenly a wave of reminiscence flooded his thoughts. It was the memory of Denmark, the incident which was the break of his life. There had been a lot of missions before Denmark and his team – Manfredi, Johnson and him – had done an excellent job, but nothing can prepare one to that moment when you become the monster you were always hunting. There had ended the life of the young, naïve, innocent recruit, he once was.

A cold shiver let his blood ran cold. Why was he remembering this at that particular moment?

Private took breath for respond when he noticed the thoughtful and absent-minded eyes of his commanding officer.

"Is everything fine, Skippah?", he asked a little worried. There was no reaction. He called him again this time a little bit louder, but with the same effect.

"Skipper!", Kowalski's head peered down through the fishbowl entrance.

Finally the addressed looked up, "What's the matter, Kowalski?"

"There are two penguins who want to see you."


	2. Chapter 2: Paranoia

Thank you very much for your comments.

And here is chapter 2! ^.^ It's way longer than the first. I'm not very sure about how the part where the beak begins is called in English. I searched Wikipedia for some time (the descriptions of birds) and finally found something called "loral area". I don't know whether this is correct or not, but at least you know what I wanted to describe in the following!

Yours Oyamora

* * *

**Chapter 2: Paranoia**

His mouth dried. This was really no good sign. First he remembered his past and then two penguins appeared who were looking for him.

"How do they look?", he asked.

Kowalski had no need to inform him due to the fact that the guests rushed past him and landed just half a meter before Skipper. Both were banded penguins. One of them had a rosy loral area which identified him being a Humboldt penguin and was marked by a scar at his belly that destroyed the contour of his plumage. The other did not have that rosy characteristic, but was a good head longer; therefore he was a Magellanic penguin.

"HI!", one of them shouted in joy, "It's been a time, hasn't it?"

"How are you doing?", the other one could hardly finish his sentence before Kowalski, Rico and Private attacked them. It didn't take more than two seconds and the three relocated themselves at a three-storied penguin deck with Private at the bottom and Rico at the top.

"What the…?", Kowalski looked back at the two intruders, but he couldn't get up. "Rico, get off."

"You haven't trained them for long, have you, Skipper?", asked one of the new comers.

"They ain't in shape at all.", said the other flippers at hips, "Are they military material in the first place?", he eyed up the three penguins that were finally standing again.

Rico grunted something.

"Rico's right. Let the second round start, intruders!", agreed Kowalski with serious expression. Rico choked up his beloved chainsaw and Private got in position. The Americans looked at each other amused and confident of their victory.

"Easy men!", Skipper shouted before the fight could begin, "They are not enemies! Calm down."

He walked between the two fronts and lifted his wings. As always his mug of coffee had disappeared without any sign. He turned towards the South American penguins with delight in his eyes, "Indeed, it has been a long time! Please don't be too harsh with these three. They are good men. This is Kowalski, our scientist and really good with options for challenging situations, Rico, an expert when it comes to weapons, and Private, our… well… private. He has a brave heart."

"You know them?", asked Kowalski looking confused like his comrades. Never had Skipper given away that much information to an unknown to them. Rico swallowed his weapon again, disappointed that he had not had any chance to proof his military training.

"Affirmative! May I introduce you to Manfredi", he pointed towards the Humboldt penguin than turned at the Magellanic penguin, "and Johnson."

"You are Manfredi and Johnson?", Private asked impressed, "Skippah told us a lot about you!"

"But wait. I thought you were dead?", the scientist looked sceptical. Rico nodded in agreement. "Something about flying piranhas at Ecuador."

"They were quite a pain in the ass.", Johnson approved, "But no match to our elite squad." He sneered when he remembered. "We are way too good to get killed by any carnivore fish."

"Indeed, at least you need two chinstrap penguins.", Skipper joked and pointed towards Manfredi's scar.

He looked down and remarked: "It's a good warning not to put my beak into any romance anymore."

"You just have to be more careful with your choice. You always had a strange taste for women."

"Hear mister I-have-everywhere-a-girlfriend.", countered the Humboldt penguin, "If there is any penguin that does not act penguin-like when it comes to romance it's you! You won't be hitched in this life anymore."

Kowalski and Rico looked at each other chuckling what caused Skipper to look at them in a dunning glance.

"But Skip…", Private wanted to comment but Kowalski hustled him. However both American penguins looked at them interested.

Luckily for them Kowalski came up with an excuse that took them to another subject, "Private was just wondering why Skipper always says you were dead when you aren't."

"Ah… yes?", the young penguin was confused but decided that it was a subject he did not understand at his age.

"You don't know Skipper for a very long time, do you? This is his usual way to motivate his team comrades.", Manfredi boxed amicably at his former leader's wing, "So… what are you doing at a place like this. Living a peaceful life isn't what anyone would expect from you."

"Nah… this is an undercover mission. I'm still at business. You heard about that incident in the Arctic?", he was relieved that Manfredi and Johnson were not going to know about the bobble head.

"Yesterday? Someone wanted to meld it. A strange story. Who would want to meld the Arctic?"

"A diabolic dolphin.", replied Private confident that there was finally someone who would believe in their story.

"A bottlenose, to be precisely.", inserted Kowalski.

"Hates humans.", was all Rico could manage to say.

"He answers to the name of Dr. Blowhole."

"Wow, wow, wow. A diabolic dolphin? Dolphin that hates human?", Manfredi didn't looked convinced neither did Johnson.

Johnson explained: "Normally Dolphins like humans. And especially humans like dolphins. Why would… Blowhole hates them?"

"I also don't believe in their story.", suddenly Marlene stood in the HQ.

Alarmed all penguins performed a defensive stance.

"Oh, Marlene.", Skipper and his team lowered their wings, "How often do I have to tell you not to sneak into our HQ!"

"I did not sneak in! If there is someone who always enters without invitation or knocking it is you!", she looked at the new penguins, who glanced at Skipper and relaxed then too, "But I heard sounds of a battle and was a little worried about you hence I just wanted to see whether everything is okay here."

"There was just a little misunderstanding. Everything is fine. Now please, go back to your habitat."

But Marlene had other plans. She was too curious about those newcomers: "So who are you. 'Military' like the others?"

"Indeed. I'm Manfredi and this is Johnson. We are old companions in arms of Skipper.", the Humboldt penguin introduced without noticing her sarcastic undertone, "Nice to meet you…?"

"Marlene. I'm one of the neighbours. Nice to meet you, too."

They shook paw and wing.

She glanced at Skipper: "Than that were two other Manfredi and Johnson who were killed in Ecuador by 'flying' piranhas?"

"I wonder. I always thought Skipper hates mammals. Why does he accept you entering the headquarter?", they both looked amused.

"You three had your fun. First of all, flying piranhas do exist – well piranhas that jump out of the water. Second, it's not like I do appreciate her entering the HQ. She is just continually doing it!"

Immediately he knew that his last sentences were a big mistake. He received a death glare from Marlene, especially because she knew he just wanted to cover their friendship due to showing off. It did not work though. Manfredi and Johnson were still smiling.

To change the subject the leader penguin asked: "So, why are you here? And – more importantly – how did you find me?"

"Finding you was indeed a difficult thing. We were seeking for you quite a while. After every mission we scanned the area to find a sign of you. The ADM did not want to tell us anything, saying you were on a very VERY tip top classified mission."

"Just when we wanted to give up finding you again it occurred that we were near a human watching a film on the internet. It was about the Central Park Zoo and there we saw you."

"First we didn't want to trust our eyes but to check on this possibility wasn't a bad idea after all."

"Question?", interfered Marlene, "What is 'ADM'?"

"That's classi…", Skipper started just to be interrupted.

"The Antarctic Defensive Military.", explained Manfredi, "At least that's the term for Skipper, because he's from Antarctica. We – from South America – call it 'American DM', the African penguins 'African DM' and the Australian 'Australian DM'. Well, the penguins from New Zealand are the losers, because they have to work with the Australian DM and you know Kiwis and Aussies do not very much like each other."

"Wait.", the otter lifted her paws, "This military thing is… you know… REAL?"

"Of course it is!", asserted Johnson, "We're all working for a high goal. Saving the world and saving the beloved ones back in South America… or other places over the world like Antarctica."

"You can't give information away to civilians!", Skipper was in a rage.

"You seem to trust her. Therefore she can't be a spy and then it's okay.", the South American penguins turned towards the rest of the team and looked for approval. But it appeared the others did not want to pick a fight with Skipper so that they kept silence. Johnson just shrugged and turned back at Marlene.

"Did he ever tell you about our former missions?", he asked and his eyes glared in enthusiasm.

"I don't think we have to reveal everything here.", Skipper did not know how to stop those two penguins from telling more than the others needed to now.

"Well Skipper, is there something that you don't want us to know?", asked Kowalski in a provocative but still playful tone.

Luckily for the cornered leader the bell of the zoo announced that they opened.

"What a shame. No time for stories. All at your places!", he shooed all of them until he was alone with Manfredi and Johnson, "And you. You stay down here. We talk later!"

And with this he disappeared through the fishbowl opening.

"Interesting isn't it?", asked Johnson.

"He faces mortal danger but when it comes to his personal problems he always runs away."

They looked at each other and laughed: "NEEDLES!"

It was monday and monday appeared to be funday because there were just few people at the zoo. In addition the sky looked rainy and every little hatchling knew humans were afraid of rain – or at least it looked just that way. The zoo was always empty when it rained.

Skipper was in his thoughts about how he could convince Manfredi and Johnson to leave when he heard laughter followed by admiring "Oh"s and "Ah"s.

"What's that noise?", he asked but nobody answered. He turned around and noticed he was alone. "Fish and Chips!"

He scanned the area and spotted the source of the sounds. In front of the empty cafeteria around one of the tables sat five penguins, an otter, the lemurs and the chimpanzees.

"I have a bad feeling about this.", Skipper hopped over the barrier of the penguin habitat and slit over to the group.

"I tell you, it was worth seeing. And then we had to drive down the Amazonas. Behind us the angry humans, underneath us crocodiles ready to have their first try on penguins, above us the glutton mosquito and ahead the 'flying' piranhas. Those were serrasalmuses. We could see their red gills shining in the sun. You need to know they can reach a length of 20 inches! Nearly as big as we are!"

"And then they jumped out of the water and tried to bite us.", Johnson thrust with his beak at the group but did not hit anyone. Still everyone moved backwards in horror assuming that was a huge carnivore fish, "But we fought back with everything we had – which was not very much. Two sticks of dynamite, which we knew we would need downstream, three teaspoons and a cactus."

"A cactus?", Rico repeated.

"Indeed.", Menfredi lowered his voice while moving his head forward and looking cautious, "That cactus wasn't just any ordinary cactus."

He waited until everyone got close to him awaiting the ultimate secret, then he spoke up in a cheerful and loud tone: "They couldn't get one single feather from us."

The others winced during the South American penguins high fived with a battle cry. Then they noticed Skipper.

"That was something you can call an adventure, wasn't it Skipper?", Manfredi asked.

The group turned around to meet the displeased face of the leader. He stood there with crossed wings and raised eyebrow.

But the group did not let him distract them.

"Yes, yes… thrilling adventure. But how could you escape your enemy now. Back at Madagascar when the fossas attacked my very kingly place zome of my subjects got killed. But you are all here. Dis all is lie.", Julien was still not convinced.

"Indeed, how could you escape?", Kowalski asked thinking of own options.

"Kabomm.", suggested Rico remembering two sticks of dynamite.

"The mosquito were eaten by the piranhas – the normal diet actually – and the crocodiles stopped the humans.", affirmed Skipper without any elaboration.

"He never was a good story-teller.", explained Manfredi.

"'Kingly'? You are a king?", Johnson was surprised, "I never knew there were kings or queens in the animal word. I always thought there were just leaders or… for mammals alpha animals."

"Silly penguins. Why do you think I'm wearing this crown?", he pointed at his headdress of leaves.

"What actually is he?", whispered Manfredi to Kowalski.

"A lemur. To be more precisely, he's a katta. Crazy animals. I think it's because they just live on that island and… you know… incest."

"Yes… we're in zest. In zest for life.", the self-proclaimed king shouted.

"How did you three get to know each other?", asked Marlene curious taken away by the enthralling stories and to change the subject again back to the thrilling stories of their military life.

"That was back at the headquarter at… well that is really something I'm not allowed to tell you. At the beginning we were a two men team but a mission awaited us on which our colonel did not want to send us until we had another member. That was when they introduced Skipper to us."

"We all thought 'Oh Gosh, he is from Antarctica. He won't last a day!'. You can understand how shocked I was when the colonel told me I was no longer in charge but Skipper.", told Manfredi, "But he surprised us."

"Are you finished? I've just done my job. That's all. Now, tell me how long do you want to stay here?", interrupted Skipper.

"That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"By the time we will receive our next mission. You wanna join us?"

"Until then you can tell us a lot more stories of your life!", shrieked Private in joy.

"I like stories.", joined Mort in.

"Come on. What could be terrible about your past?", asked Maurice, "You should be more proud of it."

Julien laid his arm around Skippers shoulder just to receive a sceptical look: "Did you commit a crime you don't want anyone to know?"

"WHAT?", he hustled the katta away, "Did you finally get totally insane? If you need to listen to the stories do it."

Skipper jumped down from the table and waddled back to the penguin habitat.

"He's got somezing to hide.", Julien told Maurice as an affirmation.

"I'm going to speak with him. Wait here.", Marlene said and hopped down too.

He was already at the artificial floe when Marlene caught up with him.

"Skipper, wait."

He turned around while set the fishbowl aside: "What's the matter?"

"Why are you so grumpy?", she really was caring.

He sighed: "The things I've done for the military were all just part of my job. I don't want to brag with it. That's all."

"Is this everything?", Marlene asked.

"Well… I also… I don't know.", he beat around the bush. He looked over at the group which was watching them. Then back at Marlene's enquiring face.

"Come down. I don't want them to read my beak."

He led her go first then entered to. From far away he could hear someone whistled at them. He knew immediately it was Johnson, but he did not care.

"Now we are alone. Where's the problem."

He still wasn't sure how to say it then he began: "This morning I was happy to see them again. But now I have a bad feeling about them. Something's odd."

"No… no no no. Not your raving paranoia again.", she exclaimed.

He looked annoyed: "I knew you were going to say that."

"What else! You don't even trust your former colleges. Be honest do you have any trust in Kowalski, Rico and Private?", she was in rage.

"Of course I have!"

"Well I'm not sure!"

"I trust you. Otherwise I would not have told you. AND I trust my team!"

She could not argue with that point.

"You know them very well. You fought a lot of battles together. See… I changed my point of view. I believe in your story about you being a military penguin. Now you have to trust at least your old friends."

"This is no psycho-social care. I'm fine. Precisely because I do know them I'm pretty sure there's something cooking. The last time I saw them was in Denmark."

"Denmark? Private once told me you said you can't set foot in Denmark. What happened there?"

"Never mind. It's private."

"Don't tell me again, it's classified information."

"No, it's private."

"Then tell me… us. Perhaps we can help you."

"No."

"SKIPPER!"

"NO!"

Both were on a dangerous level of anger.

"You see… no trust! Not a little bit of it."

"It's not about trust! Perhaps it was a mistake to tell you about it!", he turned around to look for his coffee mug.

"So live with our 'privacy' and have fun seeing everywhere enemies.", she wanted to leave and was already at the first rung. But there was no response which appeared to her to be very unordinary.

"Skipper?", she looked back.

Skipper stood there petrified.

"What's the matter?", she jumped down again and looked past the commanding officer penguin. At the table behind some of Rico's equipment – most of it weapons – was the mug and in it an ostrich feather.


	3. Chapter 3: Nightmare

Thank you very much for your comments! It motivates when there is feedback to the story!

And I want to give a special thanks to littlebirdy, who did an awesome job to betaread it.

**Chapter 3: Nightmare**

A loud crack woke him up. Alarmed he jumped out of his bunk into an accurate defensive stance and checked his room. He turned slowly and eyed every single angle of the space. Apart from his bunk and the table with his mug – in which was a cold, brownish liquid – it was empty. In the army you learn to live without much of a comfort. But still he felt odd. Something was not how it should have been. But he couldn't put his flipper on it. He listened carefully for any strange noises from outside his room.

His blood pounded against his head and aroused the illusion of heavy footsteps walking towards him. With all his willpower he managed to calm down.

There was a sound behind him. He about-faced.

The intensive wind rattled at the window to burst into his room. The weather had changed and it looked like a storm surge was going to hit their place.

He lowered his wings.

"It's just you. It is just you!", he tried to ease, without any effect.

Soundless he opened the door of his room. The corridor lay ahead of him, just illuminated by the shallow light of the moon, still and deserted.

He breathed hardly. His sixth sense – the soldier's sense – told him there was something terribly wrong, but his mind could not figured out what it was and therefore encouraged him everything was fine. He closed the door and walked back at his bunk.

He had just lifted himself when his thoughts finally could catch up with his dim feeling. Indeed the corridor had been still but definitively not deserted. There had been a shadow which he had not seen before.

He swore and rushed back, pushed open the door and observed the passage. The shadow was gone.

"Darn it!", quite he locked his room again, this time behind him.

Slowly and quite he moved. He was alerted. He knew danger and this was just another one. There was nothing to worry about as long as he could find the enemy and take him down. And he was a professional. That was his daily routine.

He sat one foot before the other eyeing every part of his surroundings. He had no idea where to go and therefore he just kept going. He thought his feet would be able to find their path.

Then a deep dark shadow moved in his direction.

He looked out of the window and saw a big cloud sliding in front of the moon. Now it was pitch-dark and in addition to that it also began to rain. With this, not only the wind, but also the heavy rain drops pounded against the window glass.

"Looks like I can't trust my eyes and I can't rely on my ears either.", a smile appeared on his beak. This was a challenge and he wanted to take it down. After all he had worked for a situation like this in his combat training.

He kept going, quite and alerted. There was one thing he could still listen to: His guts. And it told him that there was danger ahead and he needed to trace it down.

Just when it occurred to him who might be the person in help, he heard a scream.

His mind realized who shouted and in an instant he waddled as fast as his feet could take him leaded by the wall – the carpet mad it unable to slide – abandoning his security. Just before he entered the room he remembered his training on safety actions...

…and ignored it.

Inside the room was a single candle but the rest of the room was empty. Not a single piece of furniture and definitively no victim let alone a villain were in there. He walked two footsteps into the warm light, but right in the moment he had laid his flipper on the candleholder wind gust arose and the flame died down. He was back in plank nothingness.

"Wa…? What the mackerel."

He just wanted to turn around to leave the room as a lightning followed by a deep thunder enlightened the room. For a four thousandth of a second he saw a red gleam in front of him.

"What was that?"

As if the weather wanted to answer the windows broke open, the storm entered the room and another bolt ignited the wooden window frame.

In the flair of the flames he could see a body lying in front of him. It was a young Adelie penguin with a sustained scar at its head sprawled from one side of his head to the other and a missing toe. But the thing that caught one's eyes was it covered in crimson blood. In its chest was a narrow hole and out of it ran more of the scarlet water of life. The moving flames cast shades which could give the feeling the corpse was moving.

He moved backwards in shock. He didn't felt the blowing wind nor the pouring rain, but still everything turned could inside of him. Someone had killed a penguin just right in front of him without him noticing it before it had been too late. Hectically he turned. The murderer hadn't had enough time to escape the crime scene therefore he was in danger. It was when he wanted to scan every angle of the room that he noticed a knife in his flipper. He looked at the sharp, greyish metal and suddenly blood began to drip out of its blade.

He looked down just to see that his normally white feathers were bloodstained. His blood ran cold as he realized: "I'm the murderer!"

The sentence echoed through his head until the knife hit the ground with a clear sound. His mind became the reflection of the storm outside. There was no notion he could hold on. They slipped away like a wet fish in ones untrained flippers. But though the chaos of thoughts he heard a sobbing sound from the edge. Concentrating on that whining he came back to the dark room. He winced when he realized who had watched him. There sat the girl penguin he had worried about. Young, naïve and adored by all the cadets she always smiled at him. But now there was no cheerful joy in her eyes but frightened incomprehension.

He looked back at the corpse just to notice that its eyes gazed at him. He moved backwards in fright. Suddenly its wing grabbed his leg.

Skipper woke up. As a penguin he was not able to sweet and therefore he felt horrible hot. He got out of his bunk, scaled the ladder and jumped into the cool water of their pool. That was a relief and a proof he was finally awake. Only now he noticed his body shivered.

"It was a dream. It all was just a dream.", but he knew better.

To calm down he swam and dived. First round… second round… he stopped counting and devoted himself to swimming until his lung ached due to lack of oxygen. The water tried to slow him down but his thick and smooth plumage detained it. He felt free again – as free as someone could be in a small pool swimming circles.

When he finally got out of the water he thought about the ostrich feather which had been in his mug the evening before. He wanted Marlene to believe there was no deeper meaning to it but he was sure she did not buy it. First thinks first, and before he could get to sleep, he had to think about a very good excuse for that. Probably she was going to tell his team and that was nothing to take light.

He shook the few water drops off his water-repelling feathers and turned.

And froze.

Manfredi and Johnson stood in front of him.

"You're not looking very good."

"Did something happen?"

"Don't play friendly with me.", Skipper answered, "I think I know why you're here. And I can assure you things are different than you might think."

"I think you hide something."

"And it eats you."

"I tell you how things will get better: Surrender and admit your crime!"

"Did 'he' tell you about it?", Skipper got on alert.

"He? No… we saw you bloodstained. But you did not notice us. You was too busy to escape!"


	4. Chapter 4: Fight against friends

Thanks a lot for your support! *bows*

I try my best to write faster! ^.^ And don't be afraid to name when there are things you don't like. I want to write a book some day (hopefully soon) and therefore I need to have strict feedback. Otherwise one can't get better. ^.~

Your Oxymora

**Chapter 4: Fight against friends**

Even it was night the bright lights of Manhattan illumed the Central Park, and the zoo located in it, to a status where there was no difficulty to view ones surrounding. Three penguins stood on an artificial ice floe in the middle of the zoo. The water from midnight swimming was still dropping off the feather of the smallest one, who was cornered by the South American penguins.

The three were ready to fight their tough battle. Once they had been comrades – and friends – who had rescued one another and knew the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Now they were foes trying to use their knowledge as an advantage.

"There is no other way than this, for you. Did I get that right?", Skipper asked a little disappointed.

Manfredi and Johnson nodded.

"I don't know how you could fool the high ups at penguin military. It's a mystery why they didn't hand you over to the Danes but when you'll touch Danish ground they can't do anything to save you anymore!"

"So, you wanna catch me?"

The tall penguins nodded.

"Well then… come and try!"

The South American penguins knew, even though there were two of them, it was going to be a difficult fight. On their old missions both of them had seen how Skipper had been able to beat more and greater fiends. Their only advantage was that they had kept fighting over the last years while he had lived in the zoo. Daily training was not the same as putting his life on the line during a mission.

The serene of a fire engine sounded through the Central Park and turned into an unsaid agreement. When it was gone all three penguins started their fight.

Johnson attacked with a strong blow at Skipper's neck. He knew that he was not able to reach him but out of Skipper's evasive movement he could read how much he has weakened during the last years. To his surprise his former leader did not only elude his hit by a fluent motion, but also suddenly he stood behind him ready to knock him down with one single blow. If this had been a one versus one match Skipper would already had won, but Manfredi immediately interfered. Skipper jumped and landed at the edge of the concrete. He didn't have much time until Manfredi was next to him. They exchanged blows that would remind one of material arts. Skipper could see the moves coming: One at his head, one at his waist and then a kick to lose balance; and avoided them. But there was something else. Just in time he noticed Johnson sliding directly at him. The leader dodged the Humboldt penguin's hit and vaulted the Magellan with leapfrog.

Manfredi and Johnson, though, weren't tricked that easy. They turned and caught Skippers flippers.

"We've got you!", Johnson cheered.

"It's just you who think so, isn't that right Manfredi?", as a standing jump he back flipped and dragged them along. They tumbled and hit the concrete painfully but didn't lose the grip on Skipper. Therefore he felt right on top of them. For the next minutes the three birds conflate to a black and white, wrestling mass.

"We will win!" "Give up!" "Is this all you've got?" and other sentences interrupted by whooping, when someone got hit, rang through the air around them.

After a while one penguin separated from the group and landed at the railing of the habitat. He breathed heavily. His feathers once soft and neat now stood messy in different directions. The American penguins looked the same whereas Johnson had a swollen eye. They were in a stand-off.

"I can't take them down one by one. I have to think of a plan. Perhaps I can use their majority as an advantage.", the commanding officer of the Central Park Zoo penguin habitat thought while preening his plumage alert.

The South American penguins knew they had to attack him before he was able to come up with a plan. They underestimated him once, they wouldn't do it twice.

"Let's do this.", Manfredi whispered to Johnson, "This is an important mission. We mustn't lose."

They peered up at Skipper. He had a stern look on his face. Before his opponent could move he jumped and drove into the water. They followed. Penguins are aquatic birds and skilled swimmers therefore this arena was suiting for their battle. But the light was dim and they could not see very far. Manfredi wanted to take position at the ice floe and coordinate Johnson expecting that the black back wouldn't be as effective as a camouflage in a pool as it is in wild life. But that meant to separate and that would play in Skipper's hand.

They swam quietly and smooth to avoid strong water streams that could alarm Skipper and reveal their whereabouts. Manfredi was on point and tried to figure their surroundings.

"Come on, Skipper. Where are you? I can feel your present, so just give me one single clue where to find you.", the Humboldt penguin thought.

Like an answer a sudden shadow appeared in front of them. Both penguins slowed down while a lot of adrenaline was pumped into their blood. With a strong flap Manfredi was next to the shadow instantly. He gave it a hit. To late he noticed it was not Skipper but the very wall of the HQ. In a silent cry he released his anger, pain and the rest of his oxygen.

Johnson looked at his companion. He pointed towards the surface. Manfredi nodded.

There was a chance that Skipper was already awaiting them outside; consequently they were on guard when they left the water. The floe was deserted.

"He's not here."

"He has to emerge from the water soon."

After Manfredi examined his wing and had the assurance that it was not broken, they waited back-to-back.

Meanwhile Skipper was down in water meditating. Normally small penguins like him were not able to dive very long but once a friendly Emperor Penguins had shown him a trick to minimize ones heartbeat to a lowest possible before dying he could stay in water longer than any other penguin his size he knew. It gave him some time to think clearly and calmness about his prospects. He was certain Manfredi and Johnson awaited him back at the floe. Surely they were attacking him right away when he emerged. He could not avoid that attack but perhaps he was able to use it against them.

"Looks like he is no longer in water.", suggested Johnson.

"I don't know. I can't believe he would run away from any battle." It was an unsaid rule not to leave the penguin habitat.

"I never imagine him doing THAT either."

Just as they wanted to ease Skipper jumped out of the water. Johnson was faster than Manfredi and tried to catch his former commander in air. Instead he was grabbed at his wing and realized Skipper wanted to through him against his companion. He turned and held on tight to the flipper using his movement and Skipper's strength to roll over at his back. The small penguin was completely off guard when Manfredi hit him right in the waist.

"Hoover D…", they felt down like stones and there was a loud splash when they hit the water surface.

They both hold onto Skipper to make it impossible for him to escape this time. He struggled but soon he noticed someone restrained his flippers. He was unable to move. They rose slowly until the cold air of the night had them back.

"Hurry up Johnson. This is not easy!"

"I'm already here.", the Magellanic penguin answered and hold a rope.

"Where did you…?", Skipper was able to say before Johnson gaged him.

But his former companions knew what he wanted to know: "We prepared it in first place. It was hanging at the fence over there. Always think one step ahead – don't you remember?"

A moment later Skipper was totally in bonds.

"We are careful. We know you are able to unleash yourself to a certain degree."

"Although your strength did decrease. It seems your new life made you mollycoddled."

The South American penguins nodded to each other.

"Time to sleep, Skipper!"


	5. Chapter 5: Gone

The chapter was too long, therefore I split it.

And I need to explain something: Perhaps you noticed the paintings in Marlene's home. One of them shows a torii (.org/wiki/Torii). Therefrom in my story Marlene knows a little bit about Japan (not only about Spanish guitar XD). Rico was in Japan (sushi knowledge), but that's content of a future chapter. I just tell you these to avoid confusion.

**Chapter 5: Gone**

Kowalski was the first penguin to wake up and peered through the room to read the time on the clock. It was nine a.m.. Relieved he turned back to sleep, and to turn back to his wonderful dream about a gigantic brain that he was able to attach to his own, until Skipper woke them up at 0600 hours.

It took ten seconds – the time he needed to connect to the gigantic cerebral cortex – before he jumped out of his bunk and checked the clock again. This time it showed one past nine. Why were they still sleeping?

His first reaction was to look for his friends. Rico and Private lay in their bunks and were still listening to Morpheus' dreams. The fourth berth was empty though. He eyed the room, but Skipper wasn't there.

Kowalski didn't want to frighten his friends for nothing therefore he went to see Manfredi and Johnson first. Their blankets on the floor next to the table were neatly folded but empty.

"Surely there is an easy explanation for this. Perhaps Skipper is on a walk with his former comrades and forgot about time." So much he wanted to talk into believing it, a little voice whispered to him, that at least Skipper would have told him before he had left. Leaving without telling anyone was unusual for his team leader.

To assure himself he climbed the ladder and jumped out of the HQ. It was a nice, warm morning and everyone else seemed to be awake and enjoyed the last hour before the zoo opened. With his binoculars he scanned the zoo. Burt was stealing peanuts from the zookeeper, the spider monkeys had stolen Alice hat and she was chasing them to get it back, the lemur habitat was empty, Joey treated the only tree in his habitat and the chimpanzees were playing chess – Kowalski got a glance how Phil cheated. Suddenly he had the feeling he had already known the monkey business of the chimpanzee although he could not remember when he had found out. He dispelled the unimportant thought and continued his observation. But Skipper and the South American Penguins were nowhere to see.

"Kowalski?"

He about-faced with one 180 degree jump. He was too nervous to recognize the familiar voice and posed in this defensive position, ready to attack an opponent.

"Oh… it's just you, Marlene.", he eased and tried to cover his fright.

"What do you mean by "just"?", she asked angry.

"Well… I'm looking for Skipper or Manfredi and Johnson. Have you seen them today?"

"No. You're the first penguin that came out of the hatch today. I was a little worried. Normally you're the first ones to get up and perform your training before everyone else is ready to have breakfast.", she remembered Skipper's strange behaviour from the day before, "Did something happen?"

"I don't know yet. But I think it's time to wake the others first. They should be informed.", followed by the female otter he entered the HQ again.

"Wake up, men!", Kowalski ordered while sliding down the ladder.

Rico and Private jumped out of their bunks and landed directly before Kowalski as they were used to. They were surprised to see him accompanied by Marlene and not Skipper.

"Where's Skippah?", asked the youngest of the penguins.

"I don't know. When I woke up, him, Manfredi and Johnson were gone. I'm a little puzzled about this. First I wanted to check whether they are outside, but Marlene told me, that no penguin had left the HQ this morning."

"Don't you think you're worried too much? Perhaps they are on a walk talking about their old days and left by one of the escape routes?", suggested Private. Rico nodded in agreement.

"Wouldn't he tell us about it? And look, it's already twenty past nine. Was there ever a day that he woke us up that late?"

The young penguin tried to remember, but Skipper's accurate training schedule had never contained oversleeping: "Oh dear. This is unusual."

Their attentions were drawn by Rico who pointed towards the table spluttering something which seemed to be understood by the penguins but not by Marlene. Still she could see the two things lying on the table top: A described sheet of paper and… an ostrich feather. Meantime latter was examined by Kowalski.

"The ostrich feather!", she exclaimed and walked next to the tall penguin, "Yesterday it was in Skipper's mug. He froze in horror when seeing it."

"Are you sure it was due to the feather?", asked Private, "Why would he…", he stopped and thought for a moment. He didn't want to use the word "fear", because their leader was fearless – well except for needles. He continued: "…attach any special meaning to an ostrich feather? It's just… decorative."

"Indeed it is. That's why a lot of people used ostrich feathers as ornaments.", confirmed Kowalski, "But there is also a deeper meaning to an ostrich feather."

"There is?", asked the other, Rico, though, could only grunt.

The tall penguin turned the feather in his flipper deliberately: "Do you know anything about gods of Ancient Egypt?"

Everyone shook their head. Marlene told: "I know something about kami, Japanese gods."

"Sorry, those are two completely different kind of mythology… or religion. Both cultures have a lot of deities, but the Japanese worship nature – hehe… which is ironic when you see how they cover their land with concrete."

"Yep.", Rico nodded in agreement.

"But back to the topic. The Egypt had more abstract deities and most of them are attributed to the afterlife. The religion contained the idea of a life after death, which you surely are aware due to the pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Goza is one of the Eight Wonders of the Ancient World."

"Ehm… Kowalski. There are seven.", interjected Private.

"No! They replaced Ishtar Gate with the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Therefore there are eight!"

Private, Rico and Marlene looked at each other and shrugged.

"Where does he get all that information from?", Marlene whispered, "And more important: Where does he save them?"

"We don't know.", responded Rico mumbling but still understandable.

The tall penguin ignored the whisper of his friends and continued: "The Egyptians believed that in afterlife the dead had to passage the court of death. And this is where this little feather plays its role.", demonstrative he showed it to them, "I don't want to bore you with irrelevant details, therefore I'll make it short. In tribunal the heart of deceased was weighted against the feather of Maat, the Goddess of truth and right living. And this feather was an ostrich feather."

"And what is the conclusion?", the group was breathless due to eagerness.

"If the heart was light enough, the person would gain eternal life. If it was too heavy and fraught with crime, the heart – and therefore the dead person – was eaten by the female demon Ammit."

"To say it easy: An ostrich feather symbolises the burden of one's heart?", asked Marlene.

"Affirmative."

"But Skipper hasn't done anything bad in his life!", exclaimed Private, "He is helping others! Animals in need! Why should he fear a tribunal that weights one's sins?"

They remained still because they all had no answer to that question.

Kowalski broke one's silence, "Perhaps this letter can shed light on the matter.", and reached for the sheet of paper and went through the lines, "But I can't read it. Just fragmentary."

"Let's ask the chimps to read it to us.", recommended the female otter.

On top of the ice floe Kowalski paused. His eyes catch a glimpse of little traces of a fibrous, brown material.

"Kowalski?", the others turned and looked at him questioning.

"Here is something, that wasn't there yesterday.", he picked it up. He measured its length, felt its composition and finally tasted it: "Unquestionably it's hemp fibre. Probably from a rope."

"Do you think?"

The four eyed each other. They knew what everyone was thinking, but it took some time before Kowalski could answer: "Yes. I think after a careful consideration I may say now, something DID happen to Skipper and probably also to Manfredi and Johnson. Someone enfettered and kidnapped them. Let's hurry and ask the chimpanzees about this letter!"

"We excuse for the trouble we caused. But you

were tricked just like we were. The truth is hard

to bear, we understand, especially when one can't

learn about the matter. It's a domestic affair and

therefore classified. But be assured, that this is all

to arrange justice again.

Manfredi and Johnson

That's everything.", translated Mason. Phil turned the paper to make sure that he didn't miss anything.

"This is a mistake. They're friends!"

Marlene looked at the young penguin: "I thought Skipper was paranoid again, but he told me, that there was something strange about them."

"That's what you talked about yesterday?", Kowalski asked.

"Yes. But I had no time to tell you and thought… thought… it was alright to tell you today.", her eyes filled with tears, "It's my fault. If I would have told you yesterday…"

"No… it's not.", comforted Private and rested his flipper on Marlene's shoulder, "Why would you have known anything about this?"

"Did Skipper tell you anything else?", Kowalski was a step ahead already. There was no time for blaming. The South American penguins had a lead over them and he had no idea in which direction they were moving.

She tried to remember. What had they talked about? Trust… Paranoia…

"Denmark! The last time he had seen them was in Denmark!"

"Denmark?", not just Kowalski was surprised with a hint of worry.

"Oh dear…", moaned Private.

The chimpanzees looked puzzled: "What is the matter with Denmark?"

"Skipper can't go there. But we don't know why.", explained the youngest penguin.

Kowalski nodded: "Hence we don't have any information. In fact Denmark isn't a huge country – around 16,640 square miles when you don't count Greenland – but it's too big to search him without another clue. He could be anywhere."

The silence that arose was heavy and thoughtful.

Suddenly they heard a loud explosion followed by a trail of smoke that dashed out of their head quarter's entrance and routed first flying high up in the air at their location at the chimpanzees' habitat.

"Nice reversed parabola shape", remarked Kowalski.

Coming nearer the missile sounded like a scream. Mason and Phil just watched the approaching subject, while Marlene gazed in horror and the penguins got ready for fight. Rico had his chain saw ready between his flippers.

With a loud crack the object impacted and the scream died away.

Curious the animals observed the grey mass before them. The dust disappeared finally.

"Julien?", asked Marlene, who was the first to notice the ring tail.

"YOUR MAGESTY!", Maurice jumped over the fence of the habitat, "Are you okay?"

The lemur moved until the head appeared: "Stupid. How should I be fine? Note: We have to do something against those booby traps!", and collapsed again.

"WHAT were you doing in our HQ?", shouted Kowalski upset.

"You're still here?", asked Maurice, "We thought you wanted to leave! And wanted to take some of your possessions." The last sentence he added more to himself than for the others.

"TEEEE-VEEEE!", shouted Mort and appeared next to Julien's feet and eyed them appetent.

"Leave? Who told you this?", the young penguin was as irritated as his older companions.

Julien jumped on his royal feet just when the little mouse lemur wanted to touch them and smoothed his fur: "You ask? Don't you remember?"

They enquiring and ignorant miens told him wordless, that they had no idea about what he was talking.

"Uff…!", sighed the ring tail lemur as a sign, that he had to lower himself to tell them, "Last night, your king, which is me, was awakening by your noisy-noise. Maurice was too busy sleeping – ahh… I won't forget to punish you for not following my orders – therefore I went to look for the matter by myself and I saw two penguin shadows and a buddle with them leaving the zoo. The only thing I heard was that the shadows said they had to get the plane to… Co… Cop…"

He tried hardly to remember: "Copper… Copperhagn. Yes… Copperhagn!"

"Copperhagn?", repeated Marlene.

Kowalski put his flipper at his beak: "Could it be that it wasn't Copperhagn, but Copenhagen?"

"What is Copenhagen?", asked Private.

"It's the capital of Denmark.", answered Kowalski and tap against his beak, "Which means…"

"We know where we can search for Skipper!", finished Marlene jubilantly. She had no idea where Denmark or Copenhagen were located, hence she had never had left the zoo except for Central Park, but the other penguins where trained and organized. They had already travelled around the world – if she could believe their stories.

"Search?", Julien was still puzzled, "Could someone please tell me what all this is about?"

"Manfredi and Johnson. It looks like… you can't call it kidnapping. They said that Skipper did something horrible and they have to bring him back to Denmark to fulfil justice.", explained Private friendly, "We want to follow and rescue him."

"I told you, there is something fishy about the penguins.", Julien whispered to his subject.

"Rescue? I don't think intervening is a wise idea, if it is a domestic affair.", Maurice interfered and then low down, "Trust me. As the right hand man of a king I know what THAT means."

"We can't leave Skipper alone."

"It violates the penguin Code!", Kowalski agreed with their private. Rico also gave his comment.

"Indeed Rico, a penguin never leaves a man behind!"

The three penguins eyed each other in approval.

"It's a done deal. We will go to Denmark!", Kowalski enunciated. They had to do their best to help his commander and friend to escape a terrible doom due a dreadful misunderstanding. It had to be a misunderstanding.

He turned towards the chimpanzees: "I need you to find a suitable way for us to travel to Denmark. I'm afraid that we won't have enough time by day, but as soon as Alice and the other zoo keepers are gone we have to search the internet."

He turned towards Marlene: "And with us I mean us THREE. Everyone else MUSTN'T leave the zoo. This is a rescue mission and I don't want any untrained men – or women – on battleground."

His expression was firm and stern. He left no space for discussion and protest, therefore Marlene remained silent.

"Now then. We have to prepare out departure."

Leaded by the scientist the penguins returned to their HQ. Now and as long as Skipper was missing Kowalski became the penguin in charge. A little part of his ego was delighted. He liked to be a group leader but the sad thing about this matter was Skipper being in danger. That heavy burden that lay on his shoulders was visible to everyone.

"Well. We'll wait until tomorrow to get those useful items." concluded Maurice.

"Yes, we have.", thoughtful Julien turned toward the penguins habitat.


	6. Chapter 6: Journey to Denmark

The waiting is over!

After the exams and two weeks without internet – I needed to use an old dictionary (XD) – I finally managed to finish chapter 6. I try to write faster now. As you will notice in this chapter Marlene is able to leave the zoo without going wild. I won't write a story about how she managed to overcome that problem, (not because I'm lazy) but use the idea of GrandOldPenguin: Freedom Isn't Free

**Chapter 6: Journey to Denmark**

"Good morning, brothers and sisters in black and white. We are deeply sorry to wake you, but we're lost without your help," he spoke up.

In front of Kowalski had been half a dozen penguins slumbering in a wooden animal box. They woke up, when the penguin addressed them.

"I need to talk to your commanding officer."

A penguin just a little bit huger than Rico made his way to the front. He had a stern face and was unusual brawny. Kowalski ponder whether it was a genetic defect or the illegal use of anabolic steroids.

"Who are you?" he asked roughly.

"Antarctic DM, First Lt Kowalski."

"Kowalski? 'Iwanowitsch' Kowalski?" His eyes widen.

"At your disposal..."

"American DM, Major Wyatt!" He saluted to his words and every other penguin including Kowalski, Rico and Private did as well. After everyone eased again, he continued, "My brother was in Russia positioned and told me about you and the project."

"I didn't know that the project gained that much of attention. What is his name?"

"Was… Chief Warrant Ethan." The ice blue eyes filled with sorrow.

"My deepest sympathy, sir. How did he…"

"It was an honourable death. He died because he tried to save peace. The territory of the polar bears is contracting and they are searching for new places to live. We wanted to make a pact with them, but they killed our ambassador and his guards – one of them was my brother."

Rico complained.

"Yes… they are fighting again."

The penguin touched the scar on his face.

"Again?" asked Private, who had no idea about what the elder penguins were talking.

Kowalski regarded the young one mournful, "That's a long story. Unfortunately we don't have enough time to discuss this now, but I will tell you another time." He changed his attention. "Major, we need to ask you a favour."

"Speak up, man."

Kowalski started a brief report about their situation and explained that he needed three penguins to replace them back at the Central Park Zoo during their mission.

"It was a matter of time, wasn't it? I'm sure he was prepared for the Danes, but not to fight old friends. What a cowardly move. "

"Do you know what all of this is about?" Private's eyes grew with hope. Was there finally a penguin, who could explain this situation?

Wyatt just laughed, before he apologized, "I don't know anything. No one does. I believe, it's a story that no one needs to know… of course except of those few who does. Have you talked to Colonel Norrington?"

"I did," announced Kowalski.

To leave their basement they needed the agreement of a superior, which was in this case Colonel Norrington.

"He said that he supports us. He also told us there was a possibility to travel to Europe and where to find replacements for us."

"Which is my unit, I assume."

The brawny penguin turned towards his fife men behind him. "I need four volunteers…"

"Three!" corrected the lieutenant.

"I beg your pardon? What about the substitute for Skipper?"

"The humans think he was stolen by a tourist. As long as there is only on penguin missing we just have to handle a little publicity, but we don't have to fear a blown cover. And in case that the Danes spy on us, they will think we're still in our habitat."

"Man, you know what you're talking about."

It should take a couple of days until Rico and Private were able to understand the whole extent of this statement.

"Okay… I need three volunteers then. Please make a step to the front."

All fife penguins waddled nearer to their commanding officer.

"Wow… your team is very cooperative," Kowalski commented.

Wyatt rose his flipper towards his peak and told in secret, "Sorry to disillusion you, but I believe they just don't want to go to England."

"But England is such a lovely place!" The young penguin tried to pronounce every word more British than usual.

Kowalski and Wyatt gave another a look, which was more than enough answer.

"Ben, Timothy and Lucy… you stay at Central Park."

All three penguins nodded and turned towards Kowalski. "Lieutenant, what is the order."

"Are you a female?"

"Is there a problem with my gender?"

"Wyatt, aren't women too…" he tried to find a euphemistic synonym, "sensitive and sympathetic for this job?"

He failed terribly. And before he was able to notice his mistake he was knocked out very easily – the second time during 24 hours. And this time by a female!

"Uh… uhhh!" cheered Rico and winked towards the strong lady. She smiled shyly in response.

"Looks like I have spent too much time in my lab recently… I'm not trained enough."

Rico and Private along with the others laughed.

"Don't underrate the ability of a woman." Lucy gave him a flipper and helped him to stand up again. "I'm the second in command, by the way. So would you please give me my orders, Sir? And… I apologize for my reaction. It's… well… I don't like it, when someone judges me by my gender."

"No… I have to apologize. Now… your orders: Station at our HQ and defend it if necessary!"

"Aye, Sir!" She gave him a smile and saluted. In the next moment the three turned and waddled towards the exit, not without a second look of her at Rico. Wyatt and Kowalski waited patient, while the other two penguins watched the lucky ones envy. Then they were out of sight.

The Major announced, "5 seconds… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

"Erm… Sir… how do we get to there?" Lucy's head reappeared behind the entrance of the box, which Wyatt and his team wanted to use as a hiding place. Kowalski knew that if she had been a human, her face would have glowed in red colour.

"You know your men, Major." He gave her a map of New York City in which he had drawn a red line.

Eight hours later the plane landed on British soil. The penguins inside just noticed the touch down by a sudden vibration, which was nothing compared to the rough landing of Rico in the African outback.

"Hello, home country!" Private was the only animal on board which was delighted by their destination.

"Flying is such a fast way of travelling," remarked Kowalski. Then he turned towards Major Wyatt, "Thank you for your help and your men… and woman. Unfortunately we have to separate now."

"I'd like to accompany you, but we have different orders."

"I know. Good luck with your mission at the Edinburgh zoo. Whenever you need help, we're honoured to repay our dept."

"Be sure, that I will recall that some day! Good luck, boys. Free that old felly… no, now I have to call him 'chap'!"

"We'll do our best!"

As a goodbye they all saluted.

"Kowalski, where do we have to go now?" asked Private. Rico nodded. There wasn't much time left and they didn't want to think about what the Danes were about to do.

They had escaped the box during the transfer into the bus to the plane, which was about to leave for Scotland. Their next stop, though, was the gate from which they wanted to take a plane for Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Let's have a look." The scientist turned to find a sign that might help them. But nothing useful was in sight. Instead suddenly one of the suitcases next to them, which were prepared for the baggage conveyor, started to move. The team minus one – of cause there was a gap at Skipper's place – posed in their fighting and defending position.

"Saw?" asked Rico, not waiting for an answer. He was about to switch on the motor, when Kowalski put his flipper above the button. "No! The humans might hear that. We don't need additional trouble. Let's wait until we know what is in there."

Disappointed Rico changed the preferred weapon against a bowling pin and smiled evil. All three focused on the case. Possibly the Danes had indeed spied on them and sent assassins for their arrival in London.

And then it burst open.

"ATTACK!" commanded Kowalski.

"No!" was the answer. The voiced sounded somehow familiar. Kowalski stopped and behind him Rico and Private crashed into him.

"What are YOU doing here?" asked the commanding penguin.

Private, who hadn't been able to see what the inner of the suitcase was, peered around Kowalski. There were three lemurs and an otter. Rico put away his bowling pin.

"What are 'you' doin' here?" aped Julien and then pointed at the penguin. "You have no idea what thankfulness is!"

"So… this is England?" Maurice took a closer examination of the hangar. "It's a little… shabby and small, isn't it?"

"Things will do better when I become king!"

"God saves the king… Long live the king… Kind Julien… and his feet!" cheered Mort.

"That has time. First we have to rescue Skipper." Marlene pushed the lemurs aside and gained the attention of the penguins. "We are here to help you. Skipper isn't just your friend, he is ours too! After all he is the one who helped me to leave prison without going nuts. You didn't want us to accompany you, therefore we followed you secretly."

"Secretly… but how?"

"Marlene was surprisingly effective. Executing her plan you weren't able to notice us," Stated the aye-aye lemur.

"It was MY – your king's – idea."

All glared at him.

"Well… that idea was also in my head. She named it first. That's all."

"This is bad… this is really bad!" shouted Kowalski. "There are no replacements for you in New York! The humans will notice that there is something wrong."

"No problem… we modulate doppelgangers of us." From out of nowhere Julien produced a small figure, which reminded of modern art. "They are not as lively as we are, but the people will be blinded by this beauty and won't notice our disappearance."

"Aw… I also made a small sized lookalike of my real double." Marlene showed another statue of clay, which wasn't really related to an otter.

"This is even worse." Kowalski's voice was filled with horror.

Before anyone could answer, they heard footsteps and then a voice talk.

"Did you here something?"

"No… what should I here?" The worker had company.

"Sounds like animals. One of them must be bird… a strange bird. It's not a songbird or a pigeon."

"The only bird around here exists in your brain," laughed the second one. He turned around and examined the luggage before him, but there was nothing unusual except for…. "Hey, why is that suitcase open?"

"It's empty anyway. Look!"

"We have to inform someone. Perhaps the content was robbed."

The worker wanted to leave, but his companion stopped him.

"Jack… Jack, listen… The only one around here is us. When there is something missing they will claim us. And think about all the officialism we have to go through even if they don't notify us. Let's just close the suitcase again." He did while suggesting. "And put it somewhere, where they won't find it in the next… don't know… week… month? Sometimes luggage disappears."

"I'm not feeling fine about this."

"Don't think about it."

They positioned the suitcase in a dark corner and fetched the rest of the luggage.

"That was close," eased Private.

"Luckily humans are lazy."

"British are strange… why do they hate publicity?" asked Julien, "It's very nice to be in spotlight."

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Kowalski shrugged his shoulders.

"I thought we were in London," Julien looked confused.

"We ARE in London."

"Why do you call it Rome then? Silly penguin!"

"Julien… that's a figure of speech," Maurice tried to explain, but the self proclaimed king wasn't listening.

"Did you really have to bring him along?" hissed Private towards Marlene.

"There was no other way."

"So, do you know where we have to go?" Maurice asked.

"Yes… meanwhile. Look, we have to get the next plane to Copenhagen. And therefore we have to find this gate." He pointed at a symbol on his clipboard.

"Then, let's go! We already wasted too much time." Private chivvied.

It took them nearly an hour until they had found their way and another to get on the plane. 13 hours after their departure in New York they finally arrived the airport of Copenhagen.


	7. Chapter 7: An unbelievable Story

Due to my research for this chapter I became a big fan of Copenhagen and hope that I will be able to visit the city one day. The zoo seems to be really huge (their website is also in English) and the Royal Danish Army Officers Academy is really next to it. All of my information and Danish sentences that are in this chapter are taken from Wikipedia, the web presence of the zoo, Google earth and a web translation dictionary. And finally THE secret is lifted!

Have fun reading!

Oxymora

**Chapter 7: An unbelievable Story**

Due to a splash of water he woke up. His military trained mind instantly recalled what had happened before his sleep. Manfredi and Johnson had overwhelmed him; and due to their announcement, he was either on the way or already back in Denmark. There was no need to check on his fetters. Lying on the ground he noticed he wasn't able to move a single feather. Luck for his opponents.

"Finally you're awake." There was a penguin standing next to him, but all he could see were two rosy feet. The voice, though, belonged neither to Manfredi nor to Johnson but someone Skipper hoped never to meet again.

"Blue." He recognized the foreign accent, which the penguin never had been able to unlearn. A smile appeared at Skipper's beak. "Or do you preferred to be called 'Little Blue'?"

"Shut up!" the small penguin shouted. He hated jokes which referred to him and especially to his height. Freeing his anger he kicked the defenceless prisoner in his side, whereon he was turned around. "You're not in the position to make jokes."

Skipper didn't wince or moan, although the claws of the foot had pierced through his feathers. He was bleeding, but he knew that the wound wasn't deep and nature able to close it without aid. He had more interest in his tormentor, who he was able to see now. Blue was a little penguin, which is the smallest species of penguin. Their natural habitat is Australia and New Zealand and everyone knew they were unbashful and very good fighters. But he wasn't any little penguin; he was a white-flipped penguin. They stood out as very aggressive but also as a loyal species. The head of the Danish Penguin Academy, the most renowned academy of the world, asked the Australian Defensive Military to send one of their best warriors to become the personal trainer of their children. And that warrior had been Blue, though due to his height everyone called him 'Little Blue'. After his arrival the penguin had needed five minutes to gain respect after overwhelming the top agent that was at the academy that day: Skipper. Anyhow the cadets still called him 'Little Blue' when he was not around. And he hated it.

"And in what position are you to treat me like this?" Skipper tried to move although it was impossible.

"I care about the security of the academy now. And you present a serious danger." Blue smiled. "I promised the lady that I will find you."

"Did she command you to find me for revenge?"

"She still thinks you're innocent. Love is blind, don't you think?" It was a rhetoric question, because he didn't gave Skipper the time to answer. "That's why I have to protect her."

Skipper wanted to respond but stopped before he said one word. There was no way for him to explain himself without bringing danger on someone else. Therefore he changed the subject: "I thought you would kill me right after you caught me."

"First I wanted. You were clever and we – including you – thought there was no evidence against you. But I will grant you something you don't deserve. We will court-martial you."

"Court-martial? Do you have any…?" He remembered what Manfredi and Johnson said. "So you think you have witnesses."

"No…" Blue drew nearer "We HAVE witnesses. And we have proof!"

"Proof? What proof?"

The little penguin straightened up laughing. "Be prepared for death penalty. Although that's not equal to the sorrow you raised upon us." The security administrator turn towards something or someone, Skipper wasn't able to see. "Tawaki, throw him into our jail – WITHOUT releasing his fetters."

The penguin did as ordered. He bit in one of the manila ropes and dragged Skipper though the room to the door.

Blue smirked fiendish. "I will never forgive you, Skipper."

And then Skipper was yanked all the way down to the basement, where he tried not to think about the pain that ran through all of his body after that torture.

"Finally! Copenhagen!"

Kowalski, Rico, Private, Julien, Maurice, Mort and Marlene set foot on Danish soil.

"I'm feeling sick after all the time in those planes," Marlene whined.

They had left the airport and hid in a side road behind a rubbish container.

Private watched the humans passing by. "Okay Kowalski. What's the plan?"

"Well… the plan." The penguin admitted, "I don't have any."

"What?" was the only understandable word of Rico.

"We came all this way without a plan to find Skipper?" shouted the otter.

"I've never been in Denmark before. How should I know where to start searching?"

"Now you see how important it is to have uz with you!" announced Julien.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Private, his voice filled with hope. Kowalski looked sceptical though.

"Mort has relatives in Denmark," explained Maurice to the disbelieving expressions of the penguins. "Come on, have you never asked yourself why all of us – hehe… well Julien and me – have French names but Mort is Danish?"

The faces were the answer to Maurice's question.

"Mort's father – who by the way was as annoying as his son, the tamarind never falls far from the tree – was Danish. Well he had that strange accent and told us that the human had put him in prison until the green humans rescued him and some of his friends," Julien told. "Silly Danes. Why are they green and uncage that annoying family?"

Kowalski understood the meaning of Mort's father's words. The family had lived in a zoo, which was indeed a prison for wild animals – well except for Julien apparently. Compared to wild life the enclosures were very small and just the intelligent animals – the penguins of course – were able to find a way to leave them. The other inhabitants of the Central Park Zoo used their 'secret' paths. But in the case of Mort's relatives Greenpeace activists had freed them and were able to bring at least one animal back to its native habitat.

"Do you know how to find the others?" Kowalski asked the small lemur.

Mort nodded. "My father gave me a map."

Suddenly he held the item in his paws and showed it to the penguin.

"Superb thinking of you!" cheered Private.

All watched Kowalski while he studied the map. After some minutes he spoke up, "I know where to go. This is the sign of the airport and this red spot marks the place of your relatives. Hopefully."

Rico commented.

"No. I didn't use the wrong map when we took Randy to the farm. You can trust me!" Kowalski defended himself. But Rico and Private glared at him doubtfully.

"Then let's go. I thought we can't waste time," Marlene reminded them. "Where to go, Kowalski?"

"That way!" he pointed along the street with his flipper. "We'll use the underground railway. And remember, we are not allowed to be seen!"

Twenty minutes later they left the building of the IT University running.

"Kowalski, had it been really necessary to stop by?" asked Private weaving through the puzzled looking human beings, who never had imagined seeing animals in the glass building and were already watching for the hidden camera.

They passed the bridge to the other side of Emil Holms canal to escape the attention.

"Look at that!" Kowalski stopped and observed the Tietgen Student Hall with its conspicuous circular shape, cubic, façade facing, shifted and therefore partly sticking out rooms. "This is beauty!" Once again his scientific brain had taken over to satisfy his curiosity about the foreign city he never had visited before and contained a lot of fascinating places.

"Nananana!" Rico grabbed Kowalski at his wing and pulled him. He was about to lose his patience and not far away from hitting his companion – although he was his superior.

"You are right, Rico."

All eased, thinking the scientist had come to his senses again.

"The University of Copenhagen is…"

The hand-to-hand combat expert had no time to act. Marlene slapped Kowalski before he was even able to finish his sentence. "Have you forgotten why we are here? This is NOT sightseeing!"

Not only was the large penguin shocked but the whole group.

"The otter is scary." Mort's remark broke the silence.

But Marlene hadn't finished yet. "And you should be the penguin in charge. So act that way!"

Kowalski hadn't much time to come back to himself. He turned and noticed that students from the Student Hall formed a cluster around them. All of them spoke in a language neither of the animals understood, but they needn't to know that they were the topic of all the conversations.

The sound of two voices grew louder.

"Pingviner, kattalemur og en havoddere? Det er da løgn!" 'Penguins, ring-tailed lemurs and an otter? You've got to be kidding me!'

"Nej. Dér! Se for dig selv." 'No. There! See for yourself.'

A path shaped between the students and in the outcome stood a man whose charisma was similar to Alice's. "Er dette en krone?" 'Is that a crown?' He laughed.

"Hey… I think they're talking about me. Yes… yes! I'm your new king! This is the robot! YEAH! The robot!" Julien waved towards his audience and started to dance the robot, where on the mumbling increased to a joyful enthusiasm.

"Cirkusdyr?" 'Circus animals?' The man wondered where the animals might have come from, because there was no circus nearby and the zoo wasn't missing any animals. Anyway he took his blow tube.

"That's a keeper!" Kowalski whispered. "We need evading manoeuvres… wait. I take that order back." He thought of something. "Could all of you gather around me?"

"What are you up to?" Marlene asked.

"I'll tell you later."

Although they were unsure about his motives all of them approached, even if Maurice had to convince his king to stop dancing around. Covered the scientist glanced at Mort's map again, which the humans should not see. An animal that can read a map! He didn't have the heart to think about the chaos that might cause.

"Kowalski. We're running out of time," Private whispered.

Rico already wanted to chock up his chainsaw, when the scientist touched his wing. "No, Rico. We are not allowed to blow our cover. That's why we are not allowed to flee. The place we need to go is near the zoo. That man will take us there."

Suddenly Private collapsed next to him. Between his feathers was a red dart.

"Private?" Before Kowalski was able to say another word the keeper drugged him too.

"Aiiii'm feeeelin' di-izzy," Julien announced slurring his words when he woke up in his cage. "Cra-azy stuff-ffff?"

"Anaesthetic," answered Kowalski, who had been awake for nearly half an hour. "They think it's easier to handle animals when they are sleeping. Actually it's true."

"Ca-an I orderrr some of that?"

"Your majesty, please get a hold of yourself." Maurice helped his king to sit up.

"I like him that way." Mort nestled up against the royal feet as he did the past fifteen minutes, because the unconscious king hadn't noticed it. But now he suddenly was fully awake.

"NOT DA FEET!" Julien shock his leg until the tiny lemur fell off and kicked him against the bars of the lemur cage. "How often do I have to tell you: Do NOT touch the feet!"

Sad looking eyes glanced at him, but the king was hardened. He calmed down, arranged his crown and asked then: "So? Where are we? This is definitely no palace."

"The veterinary station of the zoo," Kowalski explained. "At least that's the only place they could take us."

"After you exposed uz!" Julien accused.

Conscious of his guilt the scientist looked at the basement of the penguin cage. "I know. And I want to apologise."

"We'll think about whether we forgive y..."

Marlene, who was in the third cage separated, broke in: "We forgive you, as long as we can leave this prison! We're stuck at the moment."

"That's no problem. There was no human in this room for approximately ten minutes and I haven't seen any camera. Rico!"

"Aye aye!" The locks of their cages weren't even chick proof and after the explosive expert had opened the penguin cage without any further difficulty the other two were crackled open in an instant.

"We might have a real problem now. Our enemies surely know already we are here and sent out a troop to find us," Kowalski explained. "Whenever someone sees anything strange he has to report this to me immediately!"

"Ehm… Kowalski? In which way strange?" Private bore against his superior. "Like half horse and half zebra with… oh my Gosh! It's a unicorn!" He shrieked.

"Private… there is no way a unicorn could…" Kowalski and the rest turned while the scientist was talking "A UNICORN!"

In the window of the veterinary was the silhouette of something that looked like a horse with one horn in the middle of his head, while its legs, which rested on the windowsill, were shaped in black and white stripes.

"I'm not a unicorn," it spoke. "I'm an okapi. And that's my friend, Mathis. He is a mouse lemur."

The horn jumped off the head and landed in front of the visitors.

"And my strange looking friend here is Ukurugenzi Wakili." The newcomers started laughing due the shocked faces.

„Just call me Waki. Math is proud of himself that he can memorise my full name, but otherwise everyone calls me by my nickname."

"If this isn't Nikolaj's little son! Just like his daddy."

"Uncle?"

"Yes! I visited my friends the capybara when I saw, that they brought three cages. And then I noticed you and wanted to check, whether I was right after the zoo had closed. I met Waki on the way."

"Wait, I thought your uncle isn't living in the zoo," noted Julien.

"Yes, but I came back because life is much easier in here than outside. I still would prefer sweet homeland Madagascar, but you can't always get what you want. And you are his friend?"

"His KING! Maurice!"

"Ah… Presenting your Royal Highness, the illustrious King Julien XIII, self proclaimed Lord of the Lemurs, etc., etc., hurray everybody."

"XIII already?"

"Yes, my father was Julien VII."

"EH? But…"

Maurice stopped Mathis and whispered: „Don't question the king. Trust me."

"Even worse than his father?"

"Don't compare them!"

The mouse lemur turned towards the rest. „And you are?"

"Marlene. Nice to meet you!"

"Private… and they are…" he stopped and looked at Kowalski in shame. „Oh, I assume that's classified information."

"Indeed it is."

"Are you the penguins the others are searching for?" the okapi asked. "Are you the American friends of that traitor?"

All of them changed glances with each other unsure what might be the best answer. Then Kowalski spoke up: "Yes we are. We want to find him before he's killed out of revenge by his enemy, to which we think he was brought here in Denmark."

"I could tell you where he is. Where actually all penguins of Denmark are at the moment. It's no secret – more a national festivity. But you don't really want to fight against the whole Danish army, do you?"

"Where is he?"

"500 meters in that direction." Mathis pointed toward east. "He is in Frederiksberg Palace, the Royal Danish Army Officer Academy. They court-martial him today."

"Court-marshal?" Marlene exclaimed appalled. "What on earth has he done?"

"You really don't know?"

All of them shook their heads.

"He killed the beloved head of the Danish Penguin Academy, including his wife and their son."


	8. Chapter 8: Disciplinary hearing

Yes, I admit that I'm reading and normally typing crime stories/novels and I also admit that I like to torture my favourite characters (a little). But everything will be explained in the end. And I promise that there will be action soon! ^.^

Have fun reading!

Yours Oxymora

**Chapter 8: Disciplinary hearing**

Never before was the academy filled as it was that day. The higher ups arranged an exception, so that not just penguins were allowed to enter the holy halls of Frederiksberg Palace, but all other animals too. Everyone was eager to finally see the traitor and murderer who had caused the death of Soeren, their adored head, Alia, his beloved wife, and Tjark, their promising son. No one doubted Skipper's guilt and they wanted him to be sentenced to death.

The court room was already crowded when the New Yorkers entered.

"Don't speak. We don't want the audience to notice that you are the friends of Skipper," Mathis whispered. He feared that their wrath and anger might drive them to attack anyone who was connected to the assumed criminal.

The New Yorkers had explained the situation they were faced with – not knowing what had happened, but believing in Skipper's innocence – so that the mouse lemur had brought them to the academy. Waki had stayed at the zoo because his appearance drew too much of attention.

"We won't understand anything of this, will we?" Kowalski asked in English, as quiet as possible.

"I will translate. But for this, we have to stay in the background."

It took nearly twenty minutes, in which Julien tried to proclaim that the throne looking, raised seat behind the bench was his place until Rico tied and gagged him up, before a penguin entered – Kowalski identified him as a Eudyptula minor, a Small Penguin – and cleared his throat. He started to talk in the foreign language, while Mathis translated instantly.

"Good evening, Medames and Monsieurs. Please stand up for his honour, the judge, and his jury."

Immediately all the animals, that had been lucky to gain some of the rare chairs, rose. Most of the audience stood already, because the room had never contained so many listeners and therefore lacked of seating. Through the entrance on the left hand side an African Penguin entered the room, followed by a motley group of different species of flightless birds. They all positioned in front of their chairs, just the 'thrown' was still empty.

"Sit down, please." It sounded more like an order than a request.

"Blue, please, get the prisoner," the judge asked of the security officer.

The Little Penguin bowed and waddled though a door. Although the court room was overcrowded it was so quiet one could have heard a pin drop, when Blue returned a few seconds later, pushing his prisoner in the direction of a wooden chair. Everyone gazed at the enchained penguin that had real difficulty to move properly due to his bonds. Dried blood was colouring his feathers rubiginous and he had scratches all over his body, but still Skipper's friends were relieved when they saw him alive. Suddenly the animals in the audience started to shout at the prisoner and few shied rotten fish at him. In fact three hit him but he didn't react or looked at the furious mob.

"Stop it!" the African Penguin shouted and immediately it was quite again. A hackly looking pigeon started to clean up the rubbish that had been thrown.

Blue hustled his prisoner onto the chair and stayed next to Skipper. Clumsy he sat down and finally peered at the judge. Looking into the eyes he instantly knew that this court martial was show. They had already decided the outcome of the trial.

"Your nickname is Skipper. What is your true name?" the judge asked.

The addressed kept silent.

"I posed a question, accused!"

Because still no word left Skipper's beak, the African Penguin turned towards Blue. He shrugged his shoulders, because he also had no idea what the real name of his prisoner was. A quiet jabber arose of the audience.

"'Skipper' isn't his real name?" Private asked Kowalski as silent as it was possible.

"No. But I don't know his real name either. Skipper had so many names." The scientist remembered the alias map of Skipper with all his fake identities that lied in their safe in New York. Probably all of them were faked.

"Silentium!" the judge shouted. "We continue. Clerk, please note that we have no name." He turned back towards Skipper and continued to name his data, although he knew that if there was a mistake his accused wouldn't open his beak to correct it. But rule was rule and therefore he had to read everything out loud. "You have the rank of a captain. You are ten years old which are about 26 penguin years. Your residence is New York Central Park Zoo, where you trained three penguins during various missions."

"Sir," a Humboldt Penguin spoke up, "at the moment we're investigating whether the accused might work together with Dr. Blowhole. Two of the missions were about stopping that crazy dolphin but in both cases he could escape. We, the intelligence corps, think that this is strange considering Skipper's former quota, which allows just one conclusion."

"Yes, that might be, but this is not part of this trial. Public Prosecutor, please read the arraignment out."

While the agent sat down again, a stern looking African Penguin on the right hand side of the judge got up. "The investigation brings the murder of three high decorated officers of the Royal Academy, namely: Soeren, the head, Alia, who was his wife and a teacher of the academy, and their son Tjark; forward. Two former colleagues, two witnesses for the prosecution, had seen him leave the crime scene, which might have saved Freija-Solveig, who witnessed the death of her brother. Therefore we accuse Skipper of committing triple murder and attempted murder."

"Who is Freisha Solweg?" Marlene asked Mathis.

"It's FreiJa-SolVeig. She is the daughter of Soeren and Alia and therefore the only survival of that faithful day. Now she is the head of the academy and due to rumours she has to be a tough warrior. I thought she might be here today, but… oh!" While the mouse lemur explained, the door, through which the judge and his jury had entered before, opened again and a beautiful, female penguin entered the court room. Immediately everyone including the judge and his jury, stood up to honour the newcomer. Just Skipper stayed seated, because he wasn't able to get up without help.

"That is Freija," Mathis informed. All attended animals watched her – especially the men.

In an instant Blue stood next to her and whispered in her ear.

"I'm fine, Blue. This is a very important trial for me." She turned towards Skipper and a sad expression flashed over her face. He replied her glance stone-faced.

"Or do you think I'm not tough enough to endure the trial?" Her face was stern and Blue knew that there was just one answer he was allowed to give.

"Oh… of course you are!" He bowed and returned to Skipper's side.

Gracefully Freija-Solveig walked to the judge and bowed. "I apologize for being late. There was an urgent conversation with someone." The inaccurate statement made clear that it was a classified matter.

"We haven't really started yet. Just the arraignment, which you already know. Please." He showed her the chair, the very chair looking like a throne, to his right hand side and she took seat and so did the audience including judge and jury.

"Let's continue. Skipper, do you want to give your statement?"

He stayed quiet.

"As I thought. Well then, it isn't making anything better, quite the contrary. We start with the hearing of evidence. The first witness is," – he looked at his papers – "the forensic doctor."

The penguin standing next to the entrance, through which the audience had entered, opened one door and called out a name. A Royal Penguin, characterized by a crest of yellow feathers, came into the court room, sitting down on a chair two yards away of the bench. After the judge asked for the personal data, the doctor gave his statement. Mathis summed up the important facts.

"The doctor is telling that Soeren, Alia and Tjark were murdered by a professional. All of them were excellent fighters but still they had just one lethal injury – no fight. And he assumes that they had known their attacker to the very point, that they had dropped their attention, which means the murderer was a friend. Still the doctor wonders about one peculiarity. There is a slight difference between the murder of the parents and their son. While Soeren and Alia were killed with a special knife killing technique – which is just trained at this academy and also only for senior students – Tjark was 'simply' stabbed to death."

The forensic doctor was allowed to leave and Manfredi replaced him on the chair, after bowing towards the judge and Freija.

"He tells that he and Johnson had witnessed Skipper to leave the room, bloodstained. They asked him whether he is an eye-witness – seeing Skipper actually murder the victims – and he answered that he hadn't. He saw Skipper standing with the knife in front of Freija. Now they want him to show his location on the map, the map of Tjark's room. The red spot marks Tjark's corps, the blue one Freija. Probably you're able to see both entrances to the room, one towards the corridor and the other towards Freija's room, in which Manfredi stood. As you can see facing Freija Skipper couldn… wouldn't have seen his former friend because the door was in his back. He dropped the knife and left the room through the other door, not noticing Johnson standing in front of Freija's room, waddling into the opposite direction, obviously troubled."

"Why was Manfredi in Freija's room?" Kowalski asked suspicious.

"The judge also wondered about this point. She had asked him to bring a certain document, but he couldn't find it. Because he heard a scream he entered the room."

"But I thought the murder occurred in the room next to the one he wanted to enter."

"You're asking the same questions the judge is asking. Indeed, but he heard the scream in Freija's room, which was locked, whereas he had to open it with force – Tjark's chamber was locked too – and he assumes that Tjark wanted to help his older sister but then was killed first. Manfredi believes that Freija noticed Skipper's aim and because their victims were alarmed he couldn't use the technique he had used on Soeren and Alia – I mean if he would have committed the crime."

"You sound as if you believe in his guilt." Marlene looked up to the mouse lemur, who sat on Rico's head.

"No! It's just difficult to translate in an instant and then also use subjunctive, because they don't," he defended himself. "But please be honest. Why should they lie?"

"We don't know, but we are here to bring to light the truth!" Kowalski remembered.

"Even the truth is that Skipper DID commit the crime." Mathis looked at the scientist, and so did Rico, Private, Marlene, Mort, Maurice and the still enchained and gagged King Julien.

"Yes!"

The next was Johnson, who told Manfredi's story from his focus, which didn't add much more information.

"My fourth witness would be you, Miss Freija-Solveig." The judge turned towards the beauty sitting next to him. "You don't have to testify what had happened, though."

"Why?" Kowalski asked. "One doesn't have to testify if one is related by blood or by marriage with the accused. Is it different in Denmark?"

Mathis smiled and rubbed his chin. "So the rumour IS true!"

"What rumour?" Private asked.

"That Freija and Skipper… well… they were engaged."

"ENGAGED?" Marlene shrieked. Kowalski was too slow to cover her mouth.

"Hey, what's that noise in the back?" the judge shouted towards them. Because it was in Danish the group didn't understand it, but guessed what it was about. Fast Mathis answered: "I'm sorry. It was too much for her." He tried to outlay it as if she had shrieked in wrath.

The judge responded something, which Mathis didn't translate, and then concentrated again on Freija. She looked at Skipper thoughtfully, although he didn't return her glance, and then shook her head sorrowful. She didn't want to give a testimony.

"Okay. So we will make a break here and continue in one hour."

Kowalski looked at the clock on the wall and noticed that two hours had passed already.

"Skipper is such a lady… ladies' man," Maurice rescued himself of an extreme bad joke. "His little wife in Africa, the falcon and now the head of the Royal Academy of Copenhagen. Though I wouldn't have left a woman like that behind."

"I don't think he acted due to his own intentions," replied Kowalski.

"Hmm.. hmm hmmm!"

"Oh yes, Rico please free Julien."

"No problemo." With two fast movements the lemur was able to talk again.

"That is a violate way of treating your king! I will punish you when we're back…"

Marlene closed his mouth. "If we ever return to New York, which I doubt when you continue shouting in English. So please, be quite!"

He pulled off her hand. "See who is talking. So, what are we doing the next hour… ouch!"

The Danish animals pushed against them and repeated a word over and over again.

"Leave the room," ordered Mathis into Rico's ear and the penguin obeyed. The rest of the group followed him before anyone addressed them in Danish.

Skipper thought that the voice he just heard was familiar. It had sounded like a certain otter, that he believed was still back in New York. Slowly he tried to turn, but when he finally faced the entrance he just saw animals leaving the court room. The feeling that his friends had followed him all the way to Denmark stayed though.


	9. Chapter 9: Secrecy

I am VERY sorry, that it took this long to update the story. I was very busy those last two months and I can't promise that I'm writing any faster now, although very very soon the chapters I was looking forward to since I started this story are going to be written. I hope you have patience *serves tea for everyone*.

But for now something awesome: Soon after I posted chapter 8 'Feather of Maat' it had gained it's 1000th hit! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I was a little sad that there isn't a lot of reply, but then I checked the hits and was happy again. Now it's already much more, so I'm relieved that people DO read the story. So thanks to all the readers for coming back and continuing reading! I really appreciate it. ^.^

Now have fun reading chapter 9! Finally!

Yours Oxymora

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**Chapter 9: Secrecy**

A few minutes and a lot of struggling through the crowd later the group finally found a quiet place at the entrance hall of the building.

"That was close!" Mathis, who stayed sitting on Rico's head hanging onto his Mohawk-feathers, glanced at all the other animals which were chattering about the hearing. "We should be out of earshot now. Luckily no one is eyeing us."

"We are lucky that they believed your little story, Mathis." Maurice looked at Marlene. "That was really risky."

"I was shocked hearing about Skipper being engaged to such a beautiful lady," she explained herself. "Are you sure about it?" She turned towards the lemur.

"I just heard that rumour." Mathis shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know whether it's true or not."

"You are very interested in this topic, aren't you, Marlene?" Kowalski asked with a certain undertone.

The others supported him with a: "Ehe!"

"No, it's not what you think. He's just a friend. Honestly. But look at him, that crazy, paranoid, overacting him and then Freija… she is so beautiful. She could be a royal."

"Marlene is right," Julien agreed and stroke a pose. "I would be a much more suitable fiancé for her."

Maurice watched him with a doubtful expression on his face.

"Could we please return to a more serious discussion?" Private remembered.

Kowalski nodded. "You're right. Mathis, I would like to ask you a question."

"A bird and a mammal… that could be a little difficult but…" he smiled wicked at the scientist.

"I haven't thought you could have humour," he replied. "What I actually wanted to ask you was from where you got your information? Although you're no penguin… obviously… you know a lot."

"Oops… I've talked too much, haven't I?" His eyes widened and he covered his mouth with his paw. Then his pupils concentrated on an invisible point on the floor and he relaxed again. "Okay, I tell you because I know I can trust you. You trust me and I trust you! I was in love with a penguin - a female penguin of course. She had the most amazing feed I've ever seen before," Mathis gazed into the air as if he saw them again. "Black such as ebon. Well the story of our first encounter is very long and I don't want to bore you…"

"You don't bore us. I'm interested in that kind of stories." Private's eyes started to glitter of anticipation. He was brought back down to earth when Kowalski slapped him. "You're watching far too many daily soaps."

Disappointed and sadly looking he robbed his aching cheek.

Mathis stared at the scientist with a dismayed face expression. "I never thought you really slap each other."

"Yehes… they're a little crazy," Julien commented.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

Kowalski shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, but that aids to focus again."

"Focus!" Rico shrieked.

"Well…," the mouse lemur jumped of Rico's head and landed on Marlene's. "Just to be sure. So… where was I. Because the high-ups 'don't like' to see a relationship between a bird and a mammal – just because mammal eat penguins it doesn't mean all mammals are cruel killers – we hid our love. She gave me some inside information so that I won't be caught by any other cadets. Sadly, after she finished her training at the academy, she was sent out into the world and we were forced to separate." Mathis sniffed and then moved in a dramatic position. "It was short, but our love was as intensive as it was forbidden."

There were several sniffs coming from Private and Julien. "How sahahahad!" his kingliness cried. Kowalski's thoughts turned and went to his own love problems. Since more than a month he knew that Doris was married to another dolphin, though he had no idea who it was.

"Stop it. Stop, thinking about that!" Kowalski hit himself.

"Is everything fine with you?" Marlene looked at him questioning.

"Yes… everything is fine… again." He looked at Mathis. "So in fact she broke a lot of rules," he remarked.

"And I won't name her; even if you torture me to death!"

Private patted the mouse lemur on his back. "Don't worry. We won't do that."

"No, because this is our luck!" affirmed Kowalski, even Rico made a face that should probably look like a smile. "So do you know where to find Skipper? I'm sure he isn't staying in the court room, is he?"

"No. Probably they're bringing him back to his jail cell. And you're indeed lucky. My girlfriend and I met in the catacombs once. Follow me."

"How romantic," was Marlene's final comment.

"Shhht! We are not allowed to be here," Mathis whispered, trying to remind them that they had to be extremely quiet. Though the only one who needed this advice was Julien.

"Isn't there any other way? All this dirt and dust… my feet aren't made for these environments" Julien continued moaning. "Maurice… carry mfff…"

Kowalski shut the lemur king up. He had heard a sound and obviously so had Rico and Private too. The new penguin in command pointed in the direction they already had been heading and the other two nodded in agreement, while his royalty was still busy eyeing the flipper that had closed his mouth.

Tiptoeing the three penguins continued the path until they had reached a branch. Kowalski stretched out his flipper and Rico regurgitated a periscope. Cautious he peeped around the corner. He needed some minutes before he gave the device with a stern face expression back and the three returned to the group, that they had left behind.

"What did you see?" Marlene whispered.

"There are two guards and they'll notice us when we continue moving. Even if we don't use that branch."

"The problem is they could have hide Skipper anywhere" Mathis remarked. "How do you want to find them?"

"I'm sure he is well guarded. We won't miss that place" Private suggested.

"So what is your plan? How do you want to free him from a well guarded prison?"

They fell silent. Then Kowalski answered: "I haven't thought about that yet. But I'm sure when I see that place I'll come up with some opt… wait a second."

He turned in the direction they had come from…

…and looked right into the face of Manfredi. Seeing his reaction the others followed his gaze.

"We're trapped" the scientist reported with a look over his shoulder. From the other direction Johnson was already approaching. The three penguins jumped into fighting position.

"What now?" Marlene asked?

"Yeah… this would also be a good moment for one or two options, Kowalski" Julien pled.

Manfredi smiled. "Don't worry. At ease. We don't want to hurt you." He waited until they followed. "I hoped you wouldn't come here but it seems that you're as stubborn as your teacher. Let me give you an advice: Leave! This doesn't concern you."

"Or course it does! Skipper is our friend!" Marlene shrieked.

Only one second later the guard appeared at the entrance to the other branch. "Who is there?"

"It's just us" Johnson replied. "Dismiss."

"Yes, Sir!" The guard saluted and returned to his sentry.

"A friend… he?" Manfredi smirked, though Marlene thought to have seen a slight flashing of disappointment. "Once we also believed he was our friend. But we were taught a lesson."

"You must have misunderstood something. Skipper always cares about his friends!"

The rest agreed Private's support. Kowalski thought of his error considering Jiggles. Rico recalled his causing mayhem. Private himself remembered how downhearted Skipper had been when all of them had believed their little private had been being killed by the Skorca. Julien thought of their shared adventure with Dr. Blowhole. Maurice remembered how Skipper and the others had brought him back to the zoo – though those weren't the best memories he had – and Mort thought of Skipper's helpfulness considering the admiration of a certain someone's feet. He glanced at his passion next to himself – their help had been for nothing. Marlene was in thoughts too. She couldn't remember their rescue operation when she had gone wild but Skipper's help to gain more body control.

"Do you know anything he did in his past?" Johnson asked. "Anything?"

"Or course!" Private responded in rage. But when Manfredi gave him a questioning glance he noticed that he did not. Neither did the others.

"I tell you something." The Humboldt penguin fell into a conversation tone. "I DID see Skipper leave that room. I saw the blood. I saw the corpse. Skipper disappeared in that night and we never heard anything about him until the day we had found him. Tell me: Do you think an innocent person would flee? And hide?"

The group didn't reply.

"And now you should really leave. Leave this city. Leave this country, before they also start to hunt you. They could think you're his complices, but I know you're not. So forget about this incident and especially forget Skipper." Manfredi nodded in Mathis' direction. "You can find the exit without our help."

Johnson passed the group and accompanied his friend. Both of them turned and wanted to head back into the court room. But Marlene held them up with a last question: "Can we talk with Skipper?"

"You really don't understand it, do you?" Manfredi glanced at her grimly.

"I would like to make my own decision, if you don't mind."

Both South American penguins changed glances then the Humboldt penguin answered: "Well okay. You and Kowalski are permitted to talk to him." He gave them a signal to follow him. "The rest returns to the entrance hall and don't even think of entering the court room again."

Only a few minutes later three penguins and an otter stood in front of a metal door. Only a single guard stood at the wall, greeting the approaching with a nod with the head.

Kowalski would have bet that there was a lot of high tech and codes to be bear down. The truth was that the prison didn't even have a keyhole.

"You look puzzled, Kowalski." Manfredi smiled. "Did you expect something else?"

"Errr… yes."

"Well… have patience." Johnson opened the door and waited until the others had entered the room before he followed.

Kowalski and Marlene froze. The view that had awaited them was unanticipated. Skipper was strapped at a metal chair not being able to move a single feather. This seating was the centre of a blue gleaming weight detector circle that was additionally surrounded by web of red motion detectors. On the wall were cameras – positively there were also some non visible too – that captured all actions in the room. The New Yorkers eyed their friend who looked as if he was asleep.

"You have guests. Probably your last" Johnson informed his former captain.

The eyes opened. Although he looked very tired his ice-blue eyes was lively as ever. "Visitors aren't allowed I thought."

"She was very…" He was cut off by Marlene who approached and yelled at the prisoner: "Open your mouth. What happened? You didn't kill them right? So what else happened in there! You have to talk otherwise… otherwise…."

"It's not your business, Marlene."

"Not my business? You're my friend. Our friend."

"Marlene is right. You know the penguin's rule: Never swim alone."

"This is different."

"NO IT IS NOT!" Marlene ranted and made another step in Skipper's direction. Before she could move again Manfredi grabbed her. "You aren't allowed to approach any further" he explained. She broke free, glaring at the penguin lividly, and looked at her friend again.

"It's not different."

"Yes it is. There are things that are more important."

"What could be…"

"Kowalski. I order you to leave Denmark immediately. And I also order you to take Marlene… and all the others that might have come… with you!"

"I cannot."

"THIS IS AN ORDER!" Skipper's eyes were filled with anger.

The lieutenant placed a flipper on Marlene's shoulder – he had noticed that she wanted to yell at the stubborn captain again.

"I cannot take any orders from you, because as a prisoner you can't give orders anymore." Kowalski turned and left the room. With a last glance at Skipper Marlene followed.

"You have… had a team of brave men there, Skipper" Manfredi remarked. "But that's past. Let's look into your short future: Are you ready for your last interrogation?"


	10. Chapter 10: Ambush

I was a little worried that my characters become more and more OOC (especially Kowalski) and tried therefore to return to the original characters. I hope it worked.

Have fun reading!

Yours Oxymora

**Chapter 10: Ambush**

"Do you think they leave?"

The requested stayed quiet watching three penguins, one otter and four lemurs moving through the crowed.

"And leave the matter alone?"

"Pf…" He turned to the one who kept asking silly questions. "They came all the way to this place. How can you ask this stupid? If they mess around…" He closed his beak and eyed the animals surrounding them. Their only interest was to return to the court room, though.

"Hurry… before the trial continues. I have a plan to get rid of those troublemakers." He looked at his companion conspiratorial and continued in a low voice. "Before they find the truth out."

"What happened in there?" asked Maurice outside the building. Kowalski had guided them back into the hall and then towards the entrance to leave Frederiksberg-Palace, without revealing anything from their get-together with Skipper.

They let him head all the way without questioning but now that they were outside and walking or waddling the way back to the zoo their curiosity was too strong to keep their thoughts inside their head.

"Were you able to meet him?" Julien asked.

Private continued: "Is he alright?"

"Did he say anything?" Mort glanced at the tall penguin with his huge sad-looking eyes.

"Tell us… tell us!" Rico forced.

"This stupid idiot… This stubborn, stupid idiot!" Marlene's face was full of anger. "He is in this maximum security room and told us to leave him behind!"

"Marlene…"

"Saying everything is just HIS business…"

"Marlene…"

"…and things are being 'different'."

"MARLENE!"

The motley crew had alternately watched the otter and the new penguin in command.

"WHAT?" She was looking at him with arms akimbo and a very aggressive expression on her face.

"I'm sure there is something behind it. He is covering up for someone. He said something is more important… obviously more important than his reputation."

"And what could this be…?" The otter was doubtful.

"L'amour!" Julien and Mathis sighed into the dark – meanwhile it was night – while Rico leant against Marlene's shoulder, pursed his beak and imitated kissing noises. She shook him off.

"Therefore I came up with two options," Kowalski informed. "The first one is to fight our way through the security system… but I doubt we could survive it let alone rescue Skipper."

"I do not like the part about 'doubt to survive it'" Julien annotated.

Private sniggered: "It would work if Marlene was still able to switch into her 'wild-mode'."

"I just pretend I didn't hear that."

"That's why I came up with a second idea. We investigate this matter and hope to find something we can use to prove Skipper's innocence. In addition we need some rest. The travel from New York to Denmark, the tramp through Copenhagen, the hearing… the batteries are about to be flat."

"Then we have to buy new ones." Julien suggested. "Wait… you run with batteries?"

Kowalski spared a response.

"But will we have enough time for…" But Maurice was unable to give away his thoughts, because Rico suddenly pushed him aside. The lemur fell and hit concrete, while a tiny needle flashed in the light of the street-lamp for a short moment.

"What was that?" The king's right hand shrieked.

"We're under attack! Take cover!"

The penguins jumped into the bushes with Marlene followed them, while Maurice tried to hide behind the lamppost, what wasn't able to cover all of his body. The two mouse lemurs found a safe place behind a little soil accumulation.

"What? What?" Julien watched the others hide without noticing the reason. "Hey… why are you running away from your king?"

His shadow suddenly grew.

"King?" A voice asked behind Julien. "There is only one king and that's definitely not you!"

Julien turned just in time to see a huge flipper uplifted. Then it suddenly approached.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" Maurice movements were faster than anyone would have thought they could be. He jumped out of his hide and rushed across the street, but he was too late. The flipper hit Julien's shoulder and pushed him on his so beloved butt. He tilted backwards putting his feet up literally.

"Julien!" Kowalski shouted but he had no chance to help the lemur. Just in time he noticed a flipper aiming for his neck from behind. He dodged it and counterattacked. He hit his offender and the stranger tumbled.

Only a few feet away Rico's chainsaw began to zoom. "Come on… come on!" he challenged them with joy in his voice.

"HELP!" Although she was hiding in a bush one of the enemies had found her. Pulling all his courage together Private concentrated on a move Skipper once had shown him. It was some kind of Kung Fu move specialist for the short legs of a penguin. He jumped, turned in the air and double kicked the startled enemy.

From somewhere an instruction was given but it was in Danish. Seconds later the New Yorkers would deduce what the order was. Out of the dark little projectiles darted through the air, only hearable due to a soft 'pfft' followed by the chattering of the street lights. Suddenly the road was covered in darkness, a little dim due to the distant lights of the city.

The penguins stayed on their toes, all muscles and senses tensed.

Still lying on the floor Julien, feeling a little dizzy due he had hurt the back of his head, felt someone touching his feet. Before he could protest he heard Mort shout: "NOT THE FEET!"

The impact of the collision of two bodies was heart followed by something that sounded like a harsh curse. Then the voice of the little mouse lemur was hearable again: "No one except for me is allowed to touch the royal feet!"

Surprised, shocked but also relieved the self-proclaimed king gazed into the darkness in front of him while sitting up. Then someone appeared on his side and Maurice's voice spoke in Julien's ear: "Are you alright your majesty?"

"Where were you when I needed you?" the king hissed his right hand man. "I could… no… I was hurt!"

Suddenly someone hugged his feet. A cold shiver ran down his spine.

"Mort? Is that you?" he asked.

"Yes…"

Julien suppressed the wish to kick his subject. After all the little lemur had rescued his life… again.

Suddenly someone bumped into Maurice. The lemur jumped aside and eyed the dim in front of him.

"Kowalski! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Maurice?"

"Yes…"

"Ah… good." There was ease in the voice of the first lieutenant. "Can you see in the…"

"BEHIND YOU!"

Without knowing what was going on the scientist turned and punched into the night. Surprised he noticed a resistance. "You CAN see in the night!"

"Of course!"

"Oh right… you're usually nocturnal, aren't you."

"Don't worry about that now. There is another opponent. To the right!"

Kowalski followed the instruction and kicked the enemy.

"AH! Kowalski! Help me." It was Private from a distant position.

"Where is he?"

Mort eyed his surroundings. With his huge eyes, that were well-adjusted to the night by evolution, he could locate the first private. "Over there."

"Can you guide me?"

"Of course."

"Maurice, you stay with Julien."

Meanwhile Mathis was back on Rico's head, holding on to the Mohawk.

"Left… right… left… left… hey, we're a good team."

"Eh! Eh!"

The lemur had told Rico that his opponent was fighting with a penguin sized glaive, a European pole arm. Therefore his effective range was wider than the one of the dynamite expert's chainsaw. Still the penguin warded off and fought extraordinary well.

"Gee! Where did you learn to fight this well?" Mathis was impressed.

"Japan!" the penguin replied. He had no time though to explain that he had ran through a special training in the Land of the Rising Sun that had also included fighting against a weapon called naginata, which is similar to a glaive. During these days of heavy training he had learned all about the attacks, advantages and moves but also weak points of this weapon.

Without thinking much Rico kept listening to the instructions of his lemur friend. Then – following his intuition just like Skipper had taught them – he changed his movements from defence to offence. With a strong hack he pinched the shaft and the wood broke. A sound of surprised was hearable.

"We did it, man!" Mathis cheered and was suddenly hit by a stone. Unconscious he plumped on the asphalt.

"Mathis?" Rico turned trying to see something in the dark. Meanwhile his eyes started to get used to the dim light. Too late he noticed an enemy attacking from behind.

"K'walski!" Private was lying on the street. Although he had defended himself and Marlene as good as he was able two of the attacker had pinched him down now. He could only hope that someone was coming to rescue him.

A flash, like light was reflected on a metallic object, caused a surge of adrenaline in his body. It was a fluent movement that dodged the weapon and with a clink the katzbalger hit the ground next to Private's head. Then he heard the impact of another stroke and the weight of one of his enemies disappeared. The young penguin used his freed foot to kick the second opponent.

"Are you alright, Private?"

"Yes. Thank you, K'wals..." Suddenly the asked collapsed.

"Private?"

"Look! In front of us." Mort was standing next to the lieutenant.

The scientist glanced into the night and cursed himself for not having his night viewing goggles. Then he felt a short ache.

"No… narcoti…"

A heavy slumber blew over the penguin before he was hitting the ground.

"Maurice… why are the sounds of the fight are dying down?"

"Perhaps the penguins were able to defeat the attackers," the king's right hand man suggested.

A silhouette appeared and approached. The shadow had the shape of a penguin and Maurice was relieved for a short moment. Then he made out that the bird looked different to their friends and had some kind of strange helmet with goggles.

"Quite the contrary, my dear mammal." The voice was damped. In his right flipper the aye-aye lemur noticed a broken pole. Not till then he also became aware of the penguin with a Mohawk the stranger was trailing.

More and more shadows appeared carrying the defeated friends – two more penguins, Mort and Marlene – with them. All were unconscious.

"Ouch!" Julien shouted. Maurice knew why the king had yelled – totally overdone because the stitch wasn't hurting that bad.


	11. Chapter 11: The Quartet – The R & S

Hello everyone!

Because I took so long to update the next chapter I own you a very long chapter (here it is) and at least a brief summery.

Have fun reading! ^.^

You Oxymora

One fateful day Manfredi and Johnson appear at the zoo to visit Skipper. They pretend to have worried about him, but actually they are Denmark's spies, who sent them to be finally able to capture and sentence Skipper. Noticing the next day that Skipper was kidnapped, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Marlene, Julien, Maurice and Mort got on their way to rescue their friend. In Copenhagen they meet Mathis, a relative of Mort, who helps them to get into the court room. There they find out, that Skipper is accused to have killed three quarters of the Academy's head family. He gives no statement about it. Kowalski and Marlene try to talk to him, but Skipper just wants them to leave… Copenhagen, Denmark and him. Angry they want to return to the Copenhagen's zoo, when they are attacked and defeated by unknown enemies.

**Chapter 11: The Quartet – The Rich and Strong**

"Ahh…" Kowalski's head hurt as if a herd of polar bear had run over it.

There was no light but out of the dark he could hear some other moans.

"Rico? Private?" He asked. He tried to take a deep breath and coughed immediately. It stank abdominably.

"Are we dead?" This was definitely Private's voice.

"I don't think so."

"Where are we?" This was Marlene.

"I have no idea," Kowalski responded truthfully.

It was even darker than it had been on the street. From somewhere they heard the sound of regurgitating and seconds later a light was switched on.

Rico illuminated their surroundings.

"This is a sewer," Marlene noted. The stinky and dirty water was running right next to her. "Yuck!"

"Rico! Why didn't you use the light before? It would have dazzled our enemies with the night viewing goggles!" Kowalski accused.

"Bah bah bah bah bah!" Rico answered angry. The deepness and the outreaching rhetoric of his words were reserved for his penguin friends.

"Yes… you're right. I'm the one in charge. I should have told you to turn it on," Kowalski admitted conscious of guild. "But let's stop living in the past. Let's see. Rico… Private… Marlene…" He turned and Rico followed the view with the light. A short distance away they found the lemurs still asleep.

"Julien, Maurice and Mort… where is Mathis?"

"I can't see him." Private circled the sleeping lemurs.

"But the rest of us is here," Marlene noticed.

Private looked worried at her. "Hopefully they didn't arrest him."

"Perhaps he is somewhere near. Spread out and scout!" Kowalski ordered. "But don't move far off."

Rico regurgitated another flashlight and handed it over to Private, who looked in disgust at the salivary thread. In teams of two – Kowalski plus Private and Rico plus Marlene – they searched the proximity.

Without any result though.

When they returned to the starting point they found the lemurs awake and explained the situation.

"I hope he was able to escape."

"I hope so too, Mort," answered Kowalski. "But why didn't they kill us? And who were those attackers?"

"And more important where are we now?" Maurice asked. "We could be anywhere in Copenhagen. If we're still in Copenhagen."

"We're in Copenhagen or rather beneath it. The dose of the narcotic couldn't be heavy. They had no time to get us out of the city. Probably they only need some more time until Skipper is sentenced."

The two words that rest on Kowalski's tongue where somehow still hearable, although it was just in their heads. Their location and the gurgle of the nearby water was intensifying their gloomy thoughts.

"It's spooky!" Mort broke the silence and eyed his surroundings. It wasn't any different to the sewer in New York, but at least they knew those pipes. It was different here.

"We can't stay here. We have to move. Find a way out of all this and then return to the zoo," Kowalski opined. "Therefore we first have to find a way out. Here is no gully cover hence we have to find one."

He looked in one direction and then in the other.

"You haven't seen one when you were searching for Mathis, have you?" The scientist looked at Rico and Marlene. Both shook their heads.

"Well then. Let's walk this way. I take point. Rico, I want you to come in last."

The penguin saluted and the group launched into a dangerous labyrinth neither of them knew anything about.

"This cover is also locked." It was already the third gully cover Private checked, but all of them blocked the way into the fresh air of the surface.

Rico grumbled something in his own language and regurgitated a stick of dynamite. Angry and frustrated he threw it against the metallic lid, although Private was still near it. Shocked the little private lost the grip of the last rung just in time to avoid the explosion. The detonation was without any effect – at least for the cover.

"Are you crazy? It could have hurt me!" the small penguin shouted.

But Rico ignored him. The lack of real sleep – the heavy, nonnatural slumber of the narcotic had rather weaken him – the fights, the strange behaviour of someone he had trusted – yes even needed, because Skipper was one of the few people to know how to handle Rico's destructive emotions – and the literally feeling of entrapment made him lose his temper. With a rate that remembered of flying he was on the latter and biting into the metallic lock. It didn't help.

"Ah!" He was used that his force always showed result and believed that the failure lay in the mass of dynamite. Kowalski divined what his friend thought and put his flipper onto his shoulder.

"No Rico. If you use more dynamite the street or whatever is above might collapse. We can't risk this. Not for us – the debris could bury us – and not for the people up there. They might get hurt."

But Rico wasn't capable of listening to reasoning any more. He was a bird of action and not of babbeling. Proving another time that he was an outlaw, Rico regurgitate a stack of dynamite sticks during seconds.

"NO RICO!"

He already had the matchstick in his flipper and was about to set off the fuse. Kowalski and Private tried to stop him but he was able to shake them off easily. Julien and Maurice tried to find a hiding place behind the next corner, Mort close on their or rather Julien's heels.

"Cover your head, Private!" Kowalski shouted in hope that this might help them when the roof was falling onto them, following his own orders. He waited. Any second the loud thunder of the detonation had to occur.

But nothing happened.

Curious he glanced, looking beneath his wing, at the place where Rico was standing.

"Calm down! What do you think Skipper would say?" Marlene held tight both of Rico's flippers with her paws. The fuse wasn't burning yet.

"Going nuts only because of a small barrier. He would be ashamed!"

"Fire… fire!" Rico shouted.

"No! No fire. We have a break now and then we continue to look for an exit."

"FIRE!" The penguin started to shake and tried to escape her paws.

"RICO! I'm so disappoi…"

Next to her Kowalski blew out the matchstick in Rico's flipper which had nearly reached his feathers. The explosive expired eased.

"Oh… That's why… and I didn't… I'm sorry." She released the penguin.

"It's good that you were able to stop him."

"I can't move anymore. My feet are hurting!" complained Julien returning from his hiding place. "Taking a break sounds like a good idea. Maurice! Chair! My precious booty mustn't get dirty."

Rolling his eyes the aye-aye lemur based himself on all four so that the self proclaimed king was able to sit on the back.

"Honestly you are headless without your chief," moaned Julien.

Kowalski sighed. "I'm the option guy but I don't have Skipper's experience when it comes to dangerous situations."

Rico commented.

"You're right, Rico. Skipper was on more missions before the four of us met than we three can count combined," Private agreed.

"I have an idea. As from now you do what I say."

All of them looked at Julien disbelieving.

"And I say we have a break now."

"At least one good idea, although it was actually mine." Marlene eyed the dirty place. She didn't want to sit down here, but her feet needed a rest. "Grit your teeth and get to it," she thought and was about to sit down, eyes closed, when Rico hand her a small blanket. The spit on it was a hint that he had regurgitated it.

"As a thank-you," he explained, looking guilty.

"Thank you," she answered, forcing a smile, and added in a low voice "I think". Looking at the nondescript dirty bottom of the sewer she preferred the moist blanket.

Suddenly they heard the rumble of someone's stomach.

"Oh… collywobbles. I'm hungry." Private rubbed his belly.

Kowalski laughed. "Just like back when we first met you. Our small private, always hungry."

"I wonder about something," Marlene used the situation. "You said you had met Skipper after he had been in Denmark, haven't you? I always wanted to ask you this, but there had never been the right time to question you before. How did the four of you encounter each other?"

The penguins looked at each other.

"Oh… that's a long story!" Kowalski looked into the air as if he was seeing it there.

"We have a lot of time while we're trying to find a way out of here," noted Julien. "I would really like to hear it too."

"I thought the story is classified," Private wondered.

"Some parts are."

"You could cut those off." Marlene gave him a hangdog look.

The scientist sighed. "Well okay. This might dispel our sinister thoughts too. Now… where to start?"

Rico raised his flipper. "Me!"

"Rico is right. He was the first to meet Skipper. He should start first," Private agreed.

Everyone turned toward the explosive expert and he started to tell his story.

Uttering weird sounds he drew a shape in the air and pointed beneath it, then started to walk in a military way. In the next instant he regurgitated a little ship model and send it on a journey on an ocean which only he could see, imitating the sound of the sea.

"I'm sorry, but I don't get any of what he is telling us," Marlene interrupted the cruise. "Could someone please 'translate'?"

She looked at Kowalski, while Rico turned around, folding his flippers and muttering words that sounded like "Philistine".

"I think he is easy to understand." Julien declared. "He pointed at me and expressed that everything worths lower than me. Finally he wanted to tell us about their journey to my beloved kingdom in Madagascar."

"Not at all," the explosive expert snarled, still showing everyone his back.

"The wild. We need to return to Madagascar and cover it in bouncies… but not too soon. My nation in New York would miss me."

"Not as much as you think," Kowalski commented. "Marlene, I translate for you. Until now we are on a ship to Germany, the country in the south of Denmark. Rico? Would you please continue?"

Still moaning that he was a linguist expert he faced his friends again and continued his story.

_It was a windy night at which the ship berthed in the harbour of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the major transportation hub of Northern Germany and therefore called 'Germany's gateway to the world'…"_

"Kowaaaaalski? I'm sure that's not what Rico is telling." Marlene looked at him, one of her paws on her hip.

"I'm caring for your general knowledge!"

Rico slapped the scientist. "Be serious…"

_It had been a long way from Japan to Germany, especially with top secret documents in his stomach, which had to find their way to America. But first of all he had to meet his account executive, who awaited him in the gin mill "Zum vergorenen Herring". As far as his German reached he knew that it meant "To the fermented herring", which was kind of disgusting. His sensei in combat arts was also a sushi chef – one of the best – and had taught him the advantage of fresh fish – not that Rico had eaten anything else before. _

_The penguin regurgitated the map of Hamburg and checked his route. His destination wasn't far away from his position and he hoped to get something to eat there. Something edible. And indeed minutes later he reached the gin mill. _

"_Die Nacht ist dunkel im Abendland," Rico told the barkeeper. It means 'The night is dark in the Christian West' and was a pun since 'Abendland' means literally 'land of the evening'. _

"_Ja, aber im Süden sind die Nächte noch dunkler," the old rock hopper penguin replied. 'Yes, but the nights are much darker in the south'_

"_Bis auf das Band aus Licht, welches uns die Götter schicken." 'Except for the ribbon made out of light, which the Gods send us.'_

_The barkeeper smirked. "Good that you are finally here, soldier. We thought you got lost somewhere. You have an interesting way of speaking by the way."_

_Rico shrugged. _

"_Well then. Please sit down over there. I go and tell Mark that you're here."_

_The soldier turned around and eyed the gin mill to find the place the barkeeper had asked him to sit down. There was a table with two chairs and an ashtray, one of the few. The bulk of customers were sitting right at the bar obviously, but today it was eerie empty. Through the smoke of cigarettes, which apparently belonged to the equipment, he saw a silhouette in the back. It was a penguin and it was reading the newspaper. Nothing he should be worried about, therefore Rico sat down on one of the chairs. _

"_Hallo mein Freund, darf ich Dich auf etwas einladen?"_

_Rico looked at the penguin, which had just arrived. "Wah?"_

"_Oh I'm sorry. I asked you whether I can treat you to something, my friend."_

"_Fish!" He paused for a second. "Not rotten."_

_Mark laughed. "No problem. Mikael, the Norwegian salmon please."_

"_Coming up!"_

"_Do you have IT with you?"_

_Rico nodded. _

"_Where?"_

"_Need not to know." The soldier looked angry. _

"_You're right. I'm sorry. You should be careful; there are a lot of people who try to get IT in their hands."_

"_This I noticed." During his days on board of the ship Rico had been attacked and asked about the documents already. They had underestimated him and now the chance to think about what had happened to them during their long vacation in Thailand. _

"_Well then." Mark was surprisingly fast. In the next instant Rico was pressed against the wall, the wing of Mark at his throat. "Where is it?" This time the question was asked insistently. "The documents of the Antarctica Defense Militar Force!"_

"_It's 'Antarctic Defensive Military'", the penguin that had read the newspaper corrected the penguin. _

"_This is none of your business. You mustn't interfere; otherwise this could be the last day of your life."_

"_If I got a dime every time someone tells me this, I would have been a millionaire already." The meddler wrinkled his newspaper and placed it on the table. "Now, let go of that rookie."_

"_I'm not a rookie," Rico grumbled. He used a move his sensei had taught him and moments later Mark was on his back feet away from his old position. _

"_Nice one. Watch your back!" Looking down on the fake account executive the soldier hat moved away from the wall. Suddenly the barkeeper had turned up behind his customer in his wing a baseball bat. _

"_Let's test your capacity of reaction. Stoop!" _

_Rico did as ordered and the ashtray darted close above his head at Mikael. It hit him right into the stomach. _

"_To the home run it's still a long way to go for you," the penguin joked. _

"_Thank you," Rico acknowledgement the help of the strange penguin. _

"_Obviously we are fellow soldiers. It's been a pleasure to help a brother." He saluted. "I'm captain, but my friends call me Skipper."_

"_Rico. Ensign… Sir."_

"_Rico? The Rich and Strong then. Well we need to get out of here. I'm sure there are more spies. Whatever you guard, they want to have it. Therefore I hope you're name lives up to its promises. Do you know Hamburg?"_

"_No, Sir."_

"_Never mind. I know some places where we can hide. You were lucky that I was around."_

_The captain waddled towards the door, but Rico stayed where he was. _

"_What is wrong? Oh… you don't trust me. I could be one of them."_

_The soldier nodded. _

"_Well, do you have a choice? The spy is getting to his senses already."_

_Mark stood up and looked at both ADM members with blood-shot eyes. _

"_You'll pay for this," they heard the barkeeper gasping. _

"_Oh, right. The Jever. Terrible beer if you ask me." Skipper pulled out 40 Pfenning and threw them behind the bar. _

"_When we are finished you won't be able to joke any more. By the way, that was the wrong currency; there are no Deutsche Mark and Pfenning anymore. We could imprison you for trying to pay with counterfeit."_

"_Imprison me? Then you have to wait in line. But the two of you aren't a match for us."_

"_It's not only the two of us." Mark smirked maliciously. Suddenly the backdoor burst open and two cobras entered the gin mill. They flatted their necks, although there was no need to appear larger, because with their six and six and a half feet they were huger than the penguins._

"_Hello, Ssskipper. We knew you would return to one of the ssspider holesss of the ADM. Luckily thisss one wasss already sssquared off by the enemy."_

"_Do they know you teamed up with the foe?"_

"_They don't need to know. Our orders are 'Get him whatever the cossst'."_

_Skipper and Rico were standing back to back, two attackers for each penguin._

"_Do you think you can handle both of them?" Skipper whispered._

"_Yepp."_

"_How do you think you'll be able without a weapon?" From below the counter Mark got a battle axe. "You are completely unarmed."_

"_Eh… eh!" Rico responded, waving his flipper denying. In the next moment he regurgitated a chain saw and started the engine. _

_Everyone was looking at this extraordinary penguin with disbelief, not trusting their own eyes. Skipper was the one who asked the question everyone had in mind. "How did you do this?"_

"_Secret technique."_

"_If we don't make it, had been an honour to serve with you… although it was a very short honour." Skipper saluted and immediately refocused on the snakes. "And now to you, squamatas."_

_By a millisecond he dodged a tail that had shot directly at him. Small droplets of cold liquid poured over his body and soaked his feathers. _

"_Snake venom… yuck," Skipper moaned and ducked away, while two huge teeth were hitting the floor right behind him. Two little hollows made the hint for the battle. "Better there than in my skin." But he had no time to joke. The second cobra was also aiming with their deadly weapons. Having the presence of mind to think of a tactic, he waddled as fast as his trained legs were allowing towards the next table, jumped, front-flipped and threw the table over by grabbing the front. The teeth bored themselves into the wood and with all force the snake had in its body it wasn't able to get them out. _

"_One down," Skipper giggled…_

…_far too early. With its long and strong tail it punched the captain. Hit at his head he collapsed. His senses were everywhere, but not at the right place. In front of his eyes the gin mill started to move to a heavy swell that should not have been on land. Sounds got deeper until he couldn't classify them anymore. And then there was this burning pain that suddenly flooded his body._

_While battling against Mark, which was more difficult than he had expected it to be especially since Mikael – baseball bat in flippers – had rejoined the fight, Rico had noticed what was happening to his new companion. _

"_I need to end this soon, otherwise this is the end!" he thought. And then he saw the cobra biting into Skipper's left buttock. _

"_You should not dream during the fight!" Mark shouted and slapped the chain saw out of Rico's flippers. It slid across the gin mill and damaged the bar. It sagged slightly towards the seating area. The cobras, being right in front of it trying to free the stapled one, flinched, but eased when noticing the wooden, based on long bases onto the counter, heavy, filled with liquid bottles, open cabinet wasn't going to drop unto them. _

"_Don't worry!" Mikael shouted. "I attached it to the roof."_

"_It still looks unstable."_

"_It's save. I assure you."_

_The snake glanced at it without confident, but returned to help its fellow._

_Rico started a sprint. There was just one way to get out of it and it contained to get his weapon back. _

"_Not so fast!" Mikael shouted. He was as fast as the soldier, but latter was ahead. He reached out for the chain saw, when the axe drove into the floor right in front of him. He jumped over it – knowing that he wouldn't be able to extract it – and landed behind the bar. _

"_Do you finally surrender? There is nowhere you can go now," Mark informed him._

_And indeed, Mark himself and Mikael stood next to the bar, while the cobras, still trying to get the teeth out of the table, were right in front of it. Skipper, talking absurd things in his delirium, was behind the table. Then his view went up to the cabinet and the place above himself. Summoning all his strength, Rico shouted one of the intimidating outcries he was used from material arts training and jumped in the air. The space between the bases and the wall was smaller at the position, where Rico was, due to some more liquid bottle shelfs. He pressed against the bases to make the cabinet fall onto the enemy. _

"_I said they are attached. Your efforts won't have any effect."_

_Rico had to admit that he ran against more resistance than he had expected. _

_It made the sound of a cork popping out of a champagne bottle, when the snake finally got his teeth out of the table._

"_Fanaley," it tried to say, but due to its numb jaw it couldn't pronounce it probably. Alarmed by the scream the other cobra turned towards Mark and Mikael. _

"_What's with the other soldier?"_

"_Up there." The barkeeper pointed above himself, completely confident that Rico wouldn't be able to throw over the cabinet. The snake followed the flipper and spotted the penguin just when the furniture broke away with a scattering sound. Only seconds later all four enemies were buried beneath wooden remains. _

_Rico landed on his feet and hurried towards Skipper._

"_Are you alright?" he asked. _

"_Are you my daddy?" The eyes of the captain were wide open. "Oh… I didn't say that. Rico… I need you to suck out the poison of my left buttock."_

"_WAH?"_

"_This is an order!" Skipper's eyes lost focus. "Otherwise this was my last day on earth."_

_And Rico did as ordered, after all that was obviously his superior. Then he gave the commander a piggyback ride, while he was telling where to go._

"_You need to get to America, do I remember correctly?"_

"_Yepp."_

"_That's also my destination. Let's get there together."_

"And that's how they arrived Boston with a ship, after a friendly lady – a friend of Skipper in Hamburg – allowed them to stay until Skipper had recovered from the venom," Kowalski ended Rico's story.

"Wow… that was a lot of action," Maurice commented.

Marlene wasn't satisfied yet. "And what did you do before you arrived in Hamburg? How was your life in Japan?"

"Classified," Rico responded.

"How could I even ask… so… who is next?"

"I assume that's me," Kowalski answered.


	12. Chapter 12: The Quartet  E V

Hi everyone!

Because you had to wait this long for Kowalski's story this gonna be a long chapter. I hope you like it! ^.^ Thank you so much for over 2k hits already (I just noticed it).

Your Oxymora!

**Chapter 12: The Quartett – Elemental Vodka**

"I assume that's me," Kowalski answered. "At least, after Skipper and Rico had arrived in Boston. But I think there is nothing interesting to tell about their travel across the Atlantic or our stay in the zoo, before we were transferred to New York."

Rico mumbled something.

"What do you mean with 'Except he was a milksop'? I use my brain to solve problems." He hat-tipped his head. "I don't need brute force. Pfff… After all you talk to the only penguin that was able to get access to top secret human activities… and changed them. And that's why my rank is higher than yours." He threw himself into pose. He was the tallest of them; hence his attitude looked more snobbish than he actually wanted.

"Without being able to read?" Marlene smiled sarcastically.

"I can read."

"No, you can't."

"I cannot read Roman alphabet… yet. True that. But I can read azbuka."

Julien laughed. "Of course. All of us can read azbuka. Your little pictures."

"That's not azbuka. Perhaps you know it better as Cyrillic script."

All of them looked at him with a dazzled, blank face expression.

"The language the Russians use!" From somewhere his blackboard appeared; he wrote 'Кири́ллица' onto it and read it out, hitting the surface of the board with his marker each syllable.

„I like azbuka… It looks and sounds funny, " Mort giggled.

„Do you want to say, that you know Russian?" Maurice asked.

"Da." Kowalski nodded.

"Has this something to do with this… iwno…hag? Iwa… That thingy you were talking about at the airport!" Marlene asked, not being able to remember the name the major had used.

Kowalski's quizzical face cleared suddenly. "Ah… Iwanowitsch… yes. It has." Suddenly he was miles away – literally, at least with his thoughts – picturing a part of his life which had been filled with both, pain and amazing joy.

Marlene took advantage. "Is this another classified story?"

"Njet… not anymore…" Suddenly he changed in an accent the otter was not familiar with.

"Okay. Then go ahead."

"What… wait… what?"

"Tell us that story. Obviously everything started much earlier and I'm sure everyone here would like to hear that story. The story that turned a penguin into a crazy scientist."

Marlene looked at everybody around, expecting nothing else than approving nodding. And she received it.

"What was that before scientist?" Kowalski asked a little hurt.

"Nothing at all. So would you, please." Her brown eyes gave him the hangdog look he wasn't able to resist.

"Well then. Here goes the story of my childhood…" he started.

_Still wearing its fluffy, grey down feathers the small penguin gazed into the room that was in front of it. Mountains of paper, giant metallic and wooden monsters and a strange scent in the air was its experience. _

"_Hello my little friend", the penguin suddenly heard someone say and a grey-skinned, black-haired, threadbared cloths wearing man with huge classes, which magnified his ice-blue eyes, appeared. "You're finally awake. You made me worry. Here, have something to eat."_

_Its parents always had told the baby penguin not to eat food that a strange person offered it. Therefore it just glanced at the good smelling herring, while its stomach started to rumble. Even if it had wanted to eat the fish, it didn't know how. Its mother and later also its father had supplied food and regurgitated it right into the baby penguin's open beak. Once a befriended dhole, which also had lived in the zoo, had asked it why it wasn't finding the way its parents fed it disgusting. But the penguin had not known there was another way to eat – although it had already asked itself who was regurgitating the food into its parents' beak – and after watching the eating habits of the dhole family, it was sure that all the blood during their meal was much grosser. _

_Again its stomach reminded it that lunchtime had already passed. _

"_Perhaps you're still too young", the man suggested. "The best thing is I show you some documentaries to teach you how to eat fish on your own."_

"_Where are my parents?" the small penguin asked, but everything the man heard was a silent chirp. He misinterpreted it. _

"_Don't worry. Soon you know how to eat that salmon." _

_The man disappeared and left the hatchling alone. The little one drew back into the box, away from the herring, away from the frightening room with all its strange contents, hoping that a miracle occurred again and it hopefully found itself back in the habitat, where it had lived with its parents. It knew the man though. He had often visited them in the zoo during the last few weeks. But it didn't know why it was suddenly at a place like this._

"_Mom? Papa?" it asked. Somehow its parents spoke different languages and just like the hatchling understood both of them, they understood each other. Its mother called her language English, while its father explained that his mother tongue was Russian. However, there was no response to the little penguin's cry. _

_Instead a strange noise was switched on. It took the hatchling some time to notice it sounded like penguins' talk. It glanced outside its box, hoping that at least some other penguins were at this place too. And indeed, in one of the strange monsters a group of penguins were visible, although they didn't look familiar to it. Perhaps this was the magic portal that brought it from its family's habitat to this unknown place. And maybe it was able to bring it back, the penguin thought. Filled with hope it left its box and waddles across the room to the magic monster. Eagerly to return to its home it crashed against a barrier, tumbled and found itself lying on the floor. Not sure about what had happened it got back to its feet and touched the barrier again. A name appeared in its head. _

"_A transparent blockade. This is glass!" it thought. "But this one tickles when touching it."_

"_NO! Not so close to the television. That's not healthy!" the man shouted from behind. He lifted the penguin and placed it at a seat some feet away from the monster. Then he pointed at it and explained, "This is a television. It shows moving pictures from places far away."_

"_Can I go to those places with that… te-le-vi-si-on", the penguin asked. _

"_Yes… yes… this is a television", the man laughed. "And now watch and learn how penguins eat fish."_

_The hatchling looked back to the monster called television and saw penguins horking down the one-pieced fish. It got up, jumped down the seat – it was similar to jumping down rocks – and returned to the television. _

"_I want to return home!" it tried to explain._

"_I thought you were a smart one and now I have to tell you the second time: Don't approach to close to the screen!" The man returned the baby penguin to the seat and laid the fish in front of the small one. "Now eat… eat, just like you can see it there." He pointed at the monster. _

"_Perhaps he returns me after I have eaten the fish. Maybe this is the test my parents had told me of. The test every penguin has to take before they are allowed to enter the military." It looked down on the fish and then back to the television. "First the head… and then ju…" the rest of the sentence was blocked by the fish in its beak. It was more difficult than the grown-up penguins made it look like, but in the end the hatchling noticed that its throat was free again and its stomach stuffed, but pleased. _

"_I did it… Mom! Papa! I did it!" the penguin cheered, but the only one applauding was the man. _

"_Well done, my little one!"_

"_So many new impressions in such a short while", the hatchling thought. "I hope there is an end soon."_

_But there was not. A loud sound rang through the room and excited the man. He lifted the penguin again and placed him back into the box. _

"_STAY QUIET!" he told the small one and closed the box._

"_Perhaps he returns me to my parents now", the inmate thought. _

"_Did you hear about it? A baby penguin was stolen from the zoo!" It was the voice of a female human. "Who steals a baby penguin?"_

"_I don't know, Natasha."_

"_The whole zoo is in uproar. The parent penguins look extremely depressed – you know I can feel the emotions of animals – and haven't eaten anything since then. The police is already investigating… but do you think they take this serious?"_

"_Do they have any hints yet?" the man sounded a little worried._

"_NO! Of course not… They probably won't find that penguin anyway." There was a loud sound as if something had hit something else. "Can I stay here until tomorrow? I need a distraction. And can we turn of this documentary?"_

"_Yes, of course." _

_The sound of the television monster broke up._

"_What is this? Why are herring pieces on this seat?"_

"_Oh that… yes… that… I ate some recently. Must have fallen from the dish."_

_The fish lay heavy in the penguin's stomach. It made it dizzy and in the end also tired. _

_._

"_Little one! Hey! Little one!" Someone poked the hatchling. "Wake up!"_

"_Mom? Papa? I had a weird dream…" the small penguin opened its eyes. There were penguins looking down at him, but it didn't know them much less were they its parents. Additionally it was still in the box. _

"_Who are you?" it asked a little afraid. _

"_We are members of the Antarctic Defensive Military."_

"_Are you here to take me home?" Hope appeared in the blue eyes of the baby penguin. _

_The military men looked at each other uncomfortable. Finally the one, who had woken the hatchling, explained. "No we are in fact not."_

_Sadness appeared in the eyes of the penguin. "Why not?"_

_The soldier sighed. "Listen." He sat down next to the hatchling. "This is our grand chance. We need to find out what those humans plan and Iwanowitsch – that's the man who caught you – can tell you this information. I know you're young, you had no real training or schooling, beside the things your parents told you, but this is probably our only chance. We had a long talk with your parents today. Of course they are worried and they miss you, but they also know that those stupid humans can be blind enough to not notice them running into their own doom. We need to know what they plan so that we can stop them. The ADM has already watched you as the child of a genius ADM scientist and if they had not had faith in you, they would not have sent us to take you back home. But that's not the case." _

_After his monologue the penguin knelt down in front of the penguin, although it was difficult in the small box. "But you have to decide. Do you think you have the strength to work as a spy, although you haven't undergone your first moulting yet?"_

_The penguin looked from one soldier to the next, until he turned back to the one who had spoken to him. _

"_That means I have to stay here. Never return to my home… or my parents."_

"_Unfortunately… yes. That's the price you have to pay. I know it's a big price."_

_The military man knew that if penguins had been able to cry, huge water drops would have travelled the way down the little fellow's cheeks. Until now they didn't even know whether it was a boy or a girl yet. _

_The small penguin remembered a special evening of its childhood, which was obviously ending at that particular moment. Its mother had talked to her young child that as a soldier… no, as a penguin, a huge responsibility lay on their shoulders. Not every other animal was able to do, what penguins could do. But it was also an honour to be a penguin and that she hoped that someday her little child would understand it and would be a man's man – or woman's woman. _

"_Okay…" The hatchling had found its courage. "I do it."_

"_Really?"_

"_YES!" It looked at all the other soldiers that were so much taller than it. Some day it wanted to be as tall as them. "A penguin must do what a penguin has to do."_

"_Welcome to the ADM then." The penguin soldier reached out his wing and a much smaller and fluffier wing shook on. "That's what we call a 'down low'." The ADM member smiled._

_._

_18 years later the penguin sat on the balustrade and gazed through a telescope into the night sky. Tiny stars twinkled on the black silk, but he was examining a planet with the well known planetary rings. _

"_Of course… Kowalski is studying the sky," Iwanowitsch laughed when he found his little companion. He placed a dish with fish next to the telescope._

"_What are you observing?" he then asked._

_Kowalski wrote the Russian name of the planet Saturn on a chalkboard, which was propped against the tripod. The last couple of years he had spent studying any kind of science – mathematics, physic, chemistry, geography, even music, which the Ancient Greeks also had accounted as science – but his favourite scholarship was astronomy. Whenever he had time he went outside to marvel at the gigantic universe surrounding the earth. After Iwanowitsch had found out that his little lodger was a male – thanks to a DNA test – who was thrilled by star-gazing, he had named him after the Polish-Russian astronomer Marian Albertovish Kowalski. _

"_Kowalski, I'm really amazed. Probably you're the only animal on earth that can write and read."_

_The penguin knew this was not correct, but a human mustn't know more than he needs._

"_You remember the time when we moved from your hometown to St. Petersburg?" Iwanowitsch asked. _

_Of course Kowalski did. It had been a horror. During the time in the train, which had felt like eternity, he had had to stay in this tiny suitcase with wholes for air, because no one had been allowed to find out that Iwanowitsch was holding a penguin as a pet. _

"_This trip will be a little longer. We…" the scientist used a dramatic pause. "Are going to the USA!"_

"_USA? The USA? Like United States of America?" Kowalski asked, but of course the human was still not able to understand him. There was a little shock in his voice, because he was already calculating the time he would had to stay in a suitcase this time. _

"_I'm really nervous!" the human continued. "I never would have expected to see the USA one day."_

_Kowalski had. According to what the ADM had told him, someday he had to give a whole report on his stake out at this person's place. In fact he really had gained a lot of access to some amazing human projects. One had been about some missiles in Cuba and the penguins – or rather the well known hero Buck Rockgut – had been able to prevent the outbreak of a war. _

"_But I – which means we – are allowed to travel to the USA. I'm really curious about this." With a girl-like voice he cheered and returned into his house._

"_US… eh?" Kowalski rubbed his beak. "I need to report this immediately."_

_He hopped down the balustrade and returned into his own little sleeping place. Behind his pillow he kept a walkie-talkie, which he now fetched. _

"_Dispatch, this is herrling. Are you receiving me, Kissel? Over." He waited, but there was no response. "Dispatch, this is herrling. Do you copy? Over."_

_This time there was a response. "Herrling, we are copying. Over."_

"_Kvass moves to apple garden. I repeat: Kvass moves to apple garden. Awaiting orders. Over."_

_Who ever came up with the codenames must have been really hungry, Kowalski thought. _

"_Herring, solyanka thinks about it. Call back at 1900 hours. Over"_

"_Call back at 1900 hours. Roger. Over. Out."_

_At 1900 hours they told Kowalski that an agent was on its way to meet up with him. The moment Iwanotwisch went to sleep and left Kowalski alone in his own little sleeping place in the working office, the hinges of the window creaked. There was no sound when the little body hit the ground. _

"_Evening, Kowalski," a soft voice said in English. _

_The scientist turned and looked in the eyes of a beautiful female penguin soldier. _

"_Kate…" he whispered. "I mean… hello, Kate."_

_It was not the first time that the high-ups had sent her to listen to Kowalski's report or to bring him his orders. _

"_I've heard you're moving to US now," she answered, ignoring the lovelorn…_

Kowalski coughed.

"Lovelorn?" Marlene smiled.

"Did I say 'lovelorn'?"

The group responded as one: "YES."

"I meant 'impressed'… 'impressed'!"

"Those two words have nothing in common," Private giggled and earned a clout for it.

…_ignoring the IMPRESSED gaze of the spy. _

"_Yes. Isn't this the reason why you are here?"_

"_Of course. Here, these are the cotes and your new superior. You will arrive in Boston."_

"_You're in a hurry today, aren't you?" Kowalski asked, although he knew that Kate was usually short with everybody. But this time she seemed to be nervous as well. _

_She nodded. "Yes, there is a lot going on. I need to return. Oh, but there is a letter from your mother. She asked me to tell you that she's very proud of you."_

"_Thank you." The scientist looked at the letter the soldier reached him. "Kate…"_

"_Yes?"_

"_We won't see each other again, will we?"_

"_Well, perhaps your mother returns to US too. Who knows."_

"_That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, we two won't see each other anymore."_

_And this was the first and only time Kowalski was ever able to see Kate smile. "No, Kowalski. We will not. But thank you so much for all the work you did here."_

_She turned and left as silent as she had appeared._

_._

_Often things don't turn out as they were planned. At the airport in Boston the drug-sniffing dog gave a bark when Iwanowitsch was waiting for his luggage. They found Kowalski, arrested the scientist and while Kowalski was carried away and saw Iwanowitsch grey face and meanwhile thin hair he noticed how much time he had spent with the crazy coot. Again everything was about to change in his life, and he was brought into a complete strange environment. He felt sorry for Iwanowitsch. He had taught him so much and now both of them would probably never see each other again. _

_The following night an ADM member visited Kowalski in his new provisional lodging at the zoo, in which the keepers had placed him until they had finished the check-up. The scientist wasn't feeling well. He was used to a room and the memories of a habitat that should more or less suit his species was only a shadow. Not even could he remember the faces of his parents. All he had were their letters; however, Kowalski had lost all of them now. They had been hidden in his box, which was now taken away by the zoo keepers. _

_Captain Thomas from the ADM was Kowalski's temporary superior. The training – which also included loosing the Russian accent – was hard and Kowalski often wished to be back in his room filled by books and instruments, but at the end of a three-month training the exam awaiting him. He passed it and the ADM constituted him to be lieutenant. _

"_Lieutenant Kowalski?"_

"_Yes Sir?" The scientist saluted, when he heard someone call him by his name. _

"_Ease man, ease!" _

_From behind a penguin that was smaller, but chubbier than Kowalski appeared. His gait was straight and military, though. Another taller penguin with a Mohawk was following. _

"_I want to offer you something. My friend here and I have a job to do, but we need a scientist in our team and I also need a lieutenant. Do you have interest?"_

"_Me? Why me?"_

"_Because Captain Thomas – a friend of me – suggested you."_

_Kowalski blinked surprised. "But I passed the sport test only by an inch."_

"_Don't worry about that. I train you."_

_This caused the real worry for Kowalski. _

"_Well now. Are you in?" The soldier reached out his wing._

_It reminded Kowalski of his last day of childhood, when the ADM soldiers had convinced him to work as a spy. And suddenly he noticed that he shook on._

"_High up, man! High up!" Skipper laughed. "I'm Skipper by the way. And this is Rico. He doesn't talk a lot, but he is a genius when it comes to any weaponry."_

"And that's the story of how I met Skipper and Rico," Kowalski ended.

Marlene and Private had wet eyes. "I feel so sorry for you, Kowalski."

"You don't have to. And who knows, perhaps, some day, I might see my mother, Kate or Iwanowitsch again."

"What about your father?" Julien asked.

"He's already in the next world."

Private started to cry. "I didn't know you had such a hard life."

"Actually I had not. It was difficult at first, but science helped me a lot. As you can see, I'm fine."

He thought of Kate though. His first love and how she had rejected him, only because he was a geek and not a trained soldier. Why were all woman attracted by those machos?

"Can I ask you for one favour?" Marlene asked.

"Yes." Kowalski responded, returning from his old love.

"We already have two who use a weird accent and one who babbles… we don't need a fourth person with strange talking habits. Can you please get rid of that accent again?"

"Da. Of course."

"KOWALSKI!"

Although Marlene still looked angry at Kowalski, everyone else started to laugh. Finally she fell in and a cackling laughter echoed through Copenhagen's sewer.

Julien paused his laughing suddenly and said, "But Marlene, it was rude to say Maurice had a weird accent."

The right-hand-man faced his king. "What?"

"But… I… you know, you're right. I was rude." The otter gave Maurice a wink.

"Yehes. I'm always right, that's what the king – which is me, King Julien – is."

While chatting they didn't notice that they had gained a secret listener.


	13. Chapter 13: The Quartet – Father and Son

Hi everyone!

I'm not a fan of golf or minigolf and therefore I only know a little about it. I skim the Wikipedia text a little for some information, but I wasn't really researching. Therefore I'm really sorry, if there are mistakes here. But now have fun reading about Private's past.

Yours Oxymora!

**Chapter 13: The Quartet – Father and Son**

"_Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to this year's championship of miniature golf. Here is your favourite co-commentator James Jones and I will present the games today. But this is not all. I have a special guest for you. Say hello – or rather hejsan – to Edwin of the Svenska Bangolfförbundet, the oldest Minigolf Federation of Europe."_

"_Good evening, London! I feel honoured of being part of this amazing event: The British Crazy Miniature Golf. This isn't any sport… this is MINIGOLF!"_

_The crowd of animals cheered in all possible animal and regional accents that were ever heard in Great Britain. _

_As the noises quiet down, James continued using from time to time dramatic pauses: "And as I can see our big champion is now entering the arena. Every single minigolf fan in Europe and America knows him: the youngest champion… the talent of the century… the one, who seems to perform magic with the golf ball… Everyone, please give a warm welcome to…. MR. TUX!" _

_On the left side a not yet teenaged boy penguin appeared. Beside his confidence and love for his fame, he wore a red bow-tie and his golf club. He waved in the direction of the terrace and saw two penguins with 'Mr. Tux'-fan-t-shirts fainting. He smiled. He loved it. _

"_What do you say, Edwin? Can he defend his title against his opponent?" James voice sounded through the arena again. _

"_We will see, James. But I placed my money on him. Although his challenger is no one else than…" A wombat entered the arena. Its face expression was promising that at the end of this match there would be a new champion leaving the arena. Although most of the spectators were rooting for Mr. Tux and therefore booed, there were indeed some fans cheering for the marsupial. _

"_Looooooooooooord Doc!"_

_Both opponents were in the arena now. They looked at each other in a gaze fight hoping the other would quit the eye contact first. To finish the prelude of their fight the referee, an old male puffin, stepped between them, while some spectators feared that the energy between the two rivals might roast him. But nothing happened, therefore the match was about to begin. A few salespersons moved through the audience and sold soft drinks, food and ice cream. _

_The sun was burning down onto the very green, well cut, British lawn that was planted between the different courses. The grass stalks weren't moving at all; even the wind was holding its breath to ensure that its chill touch wasn't distorting the outcome. _

"_Are the sportsmen ready?" _

_The penguin and the wombat nodded in agreement. _

"_Then… let the game begin. Lord Doc, you're first."_

_The wombat needed only one try to hole the ball. Mr. Tux wasn't impressed at all and his opponent wasn't expecting anything else. The first few courses were without any noteworthy hazards hence they were peanuts; a little warm up before the real, the difficult part would start. They even showed off a little using more difficult paths than it was necessary to hole the golf ball with one tee, but neither of them had to pay for their arrogance. On the other hand the audience was entertained, and this was what both of them were aiming for. Winning was one thing, but charming the audience was a guarantee for a good fandom. _

_And then the real fight began. James and Edwin commentated the whole game, using jokes and giving some background information about courses and players. Neither Mr. Tux nor Lord Doc allowed himself a mistake, because granting an advantage could imply loosing the whole tournament. _

_Reaching the last, the 18th course, both of them had the same low 17 points total._

"_Ladies and gentlemen, this is where things have to be set. Winning and losing is only a one-point-distance away. Do our beloved golfers have the brass neck to get through this last course, or will one of them make a fateful mistake?"_

_With a confident smile on his face Mr. Tux proceeded to the course and checked his possibilities. He drove off the ball and after passing a loop, a little passage through a miniature Buckingham Palace, hitting the corner at the correct place with the most efficient angle, the ball speeded up, hitting a button, which set free a mechanism. The golf ball was deflected off the button and rolled down a little path, entering a bridge which started to move due to the initiated mechanism until the ball finally landed in the mouth of a clown without contacting the railing of the bridge. The British anthem sounded. _

"_Mr. Tux has putted his ball. Let's see whether the second ball will be too!" James told the audience, which was rather cheering, applauding and singing along the anthem than listening to his nearly drown out comments. _

_It was Lord Doc's turn. Just like before the ball made its way easily through the loop and the Buckingham-Palace-passage, negotiated the corner and hit the button. At first it was just visible for experienced and good seated people, as also for both rivals, so that only a few spectators stopped breathing in anticipation. Little sweat droplets appeared on the wombat's forehead, while Mr. Tux smiled triumphantly. And when the ball went on the bridge, the rest was able to become aware of the golf ball's potentially fatal way. The rebound had caused a less optimal angle than it had been necessary for the ball to pass the bridge without difficulty. The ball drove nearer and nearer to the railing, while the bridge rose higher into the air. And then the ball touched the railing. It slowed down, while moving in the other direction now running the risk of hitting the other side. The bridge was reaching the final goal. _

"_Come on… come on…" Lord Doc tried to encourage the ball. He hoped for the little chance, that there was a small probability that holing was still possible. Clown mouth and ball drew nearer to each other._

_The audience was holding their breath. Some stood up hoping to get a better view and the camera fullscreened the scene. Edwin explained through his microphone: "Now this is thrilling! If the ball isn't touching the railing again it is still fast enough to get to the hole."_

_And then the bridge had reached the clown and the golf ball the other end of the bridge… and was only a slight distance away from the railing again. The stern poker face of the wombat lifted a little. _

_Everyone jumped on his feet. The ball was about to fall down of the passage…_

…_as it hit the last corner of the railing and dropped, together with Lord Doc's poker face. The fans started to celebrate the victory._

"_Aaaaaaaaand this is it! Mr. Tux is champi…"_

"_NOT THAT FAST!" a voice resounded in the arena. An armadillo was standing a few meters away from the group of three, consisting out of the two rivals and the referee. Due to all the suspense of the last course no one had noticed that another person had entered the arena. _

"_My name is Amarillo Kid."_

_Everyone gasped. Amarillo Kid was as famous as Mr. Tux was and in fact there had been the rumour, that someone had poisoned the talented armadillo to prevent him from entering the tournament. Of course sharp tongues had suspected the penguin, but with cuteness he was able to withstand the accusations. _

"_Good to see you're back on your feet," Mr. Tux said. _

"_Yes. Now… there is still a game to play. Isn't there?"_

_The referee interfered: "I'm sorry to say this, but it is impossible to enter the tournament now."_

"_Please, make an exception. Only this time," the penguin asked for. _

_The puffin looked puzzled. _

"_AMARILLO KID! AMARILLO KID!" the audience started to shout. They wanted to see both legends finally fighting each other. _

"_Beloved friends of miniature golf, at this very moment Edwin went down to talk to those responsible. As soon as he is back we announce whether the final of the British Crazy Miniature Golf championship is heading towards the second round," James informed the spectators. _

_The patience of everyone had not to wear for a long time. Before they announced it to the spectators the earphone of the referee instructed the puffin to start another game. _

"And all of you already know how things turned out." Conscious of guilt appeared at Private's face, and he looked at the ground they were walking on. They had come to the agreement that they should continue their search for an exit of the sewer – or at least Kowalski had told them too. Julien's plan had implied the others to look for a way out and then return to him, while he waited more or less comfortable on his right hand's man's back. At least, so he said, it was well-cushioned.

"Miniature golf…" Kowalski giggled and Rico joined in. "That's not even a sport."

Private looked at them with anger, but continued.

_Mr. Tux returned to his uncle's quiet room. Nigel was often gone, usually without telling his nephew his whereabouts, but since his mother had to take care of Mr. Tux' little half-sister and told him to get to know the world, it was his only place to stay. During the past day he had noticed that he was about to lose himself to a cold-hearted, selfish alias. This wasn't what his mother had wanted him to be. But what was it that he should become? _

_The little penguin looked at the family picture, which rested on the mantel above the fireplace. It showed a two days old penguin still wearing down feathers, its mother, its uncle and another penguin, which bore analogies to Nigel. 'Mr. Tux' couldn't remember the person, but knew it was his father, about whom his mother had often talked with high regards. He wore a flash of the ADM. The teenaged penguin reached for the picture, but tripped over. He hit the frame accidently by breaking his fall, causing the picture dropping onto the ground and the glass, which was protecting the picture, shattered. _

"_Oh no! At first the ice-cream and now Uncle Nigel's precious family photo."_

_He reached for the picture. Just as he lifted it, a little paper fell down. Curious the little penguin regarded it intently and noticed it was a newspaper article. He read: "Finally the ADM was able to capture the most wanted war criminal of our time; however, it is with deep regrets that we have to announce that one brave soldier had died during the mission."_

_A picture of his father was next to it. His mother had told the little penguin that his father had died in the course of his duty, but never what it had been. _

_Eager he continued reading._

"_Finally the ADM in cooperation with other intelligence services was able to capture the criminal who is only known to the public as Loki. He has caused…"_

_There the article was cropped and a second part was nowhere to be seen. But the little penguin noticed a sentence that was written with lead pencil on top of the paper. He recognised his mother's handwriting. _

"_Don't tell him before he is old enough."_

"_My father was a hero," Mr. Tux realised. "A hero, who saved lives!"_

_And suddenly he knew what he had to do. _

_._

_A month later Private was standing in the zoo of New York City. A stern looking captain was eyeing him._

"_What is your name, rookie?"_

"_P… Private…," the addressed said as quiet as possible._

"_I couldn't hear you. Speak up!"_

_There was anger visible on the commander's face and suddenly the little newcomer wondered whether he had done a terrible mistake. He gulped and then nearly shrieked: "PRIVATE!"_

_The only name he ever had worn had been Mr. Tux. But because he wanted to leave the past of Mr. Tux behind, he told the recruiter that he had not had any names yet. _

"_As soon as you're no private anymore – or rather first private – you'll get a name. Until then, you're private Private. You want to complain?" the recruiter had asked._

_The penguin had shaken his head, although he would have wanted to complain. _

"_Welcome to the team then. I'm Skipper." The captain held out his wing, but when Private wanted to high five it – as he had seen other teams doing it – Skipper pulled it away. _

"_Too slow!" he laughed._

_Suddenly the bowl that was in their habitat was blown away by an explosion. In front of Private something landed that resembled a spider just that it had plastic spoons instead of feet. It moved into the little penguin's direction and was about to jump, when a chainsaw hit the monster from above. The attacker beat the spoon-spider several times, laughing madly. _

"_No! The spoonerator is a tool to get us out of the zoo! STOP IT, RICO!" a tall penguin jumped out of the hole that had been beneath the bowl. _

"_Kowalski, it had nearly attacked our newcomer!" Skipper explained._

"_I COULD have fixed this problem, if not a certain rowdy had DESTROYED it!" He looked down onto the remains of his invention. Suddenly one of the spoons tried to move, which caused another blow of the chainsaw._

"_RICO!"_

"_Private. Meet Kowalski and Rico," Skipper introduced the two other penguins. _

_The small penguin heard voices behind him and turned. A zebra was hissing something in the ear of a lion, which just answered: "Yes, those penguins are psychotic."_

_Private eyed the tall penguin, which had scorched feathers, and the chainsaw caring penguin, which had the face expression of a madman. Perhaps those two mammals were right._

"_Nice to meet you… I guess," he replied as polite as his British education forced him to. _

"_This is a nightmare, right? This can't be the military. Can it?" Private thought then._

"_Well boys, time to get back to our mission! Mission Antarctica! I want to be there in one month!"_

"_Antarctica? What about my training?"_

"_This mission will be your training!" Skipper laughed. "But now that the zoo is opening, our mission is: Smile and wave… smile and wave, boys."_

"Two months later we were on our way to Antarctica and sometime after that we had our vacation on Madagascar," Private finished.

"My beloved kingdom," Julien sighed. "You know what? I miss those freaks. The crazy lion, his friend, the sad head and sad-head's woman."

Kowalski continued: "We met Santa..."

"He was a good dancer."

"… and went to Africa," Private added.

The three penguins stopped and gazed into the air remembering the old time.

"You seem to have seen a lot of the world, haven't you?" Marlene asked.

"After we were able to leave Africa, we visited some places all over the world, before we returned to New York City."

"Back then – I mean Madagascar and Africa, although Madagascar belongs to Africa…"

"MADAGASCAR belongs to its king… which is me! ME! Not someone called Africa. I can beat that Africa up. Maurice… go and find this falsa king called Africa, and show him who is the rightful king, King Julien, which is – just to remind you – me! By the way, is this Africa somehow related to Africa, the place where the freaks are at the moment? Because that Africa also belongs to me, King Julien, now."

The others looked at the ringtail lemur not knowing what to response.

"That's where you met 'him'." Marlene let is sound more like a statement than a question, nodding in the direction of the lemur.

"Yes," Kowalski answered. "And as I was trying to say, back then we weren't the team we are now."

"Wife!" Rico said.

Private nodded: "Yes. It was after the death of Skipper's wife that we grew together. I can still picture the scene when he stood in front of us and said 'Thank you, boys… no… thank you, FRIENDS'."

"It was so touching!" Kowalski sobbed.

Rico regurgitated a handkerchief and blew his nose.

"Hold on. Skipper has a wife?"

"Had… Marlene… had!" Kowalski corrected her.

"What has happened to her?"

"We won't tell you. If you want to know something about her, you have to ask Skipper."

"But he will tell me that it's not my business!"

"Yes, probably. But we won't tell you."

Marlene was curious, but she could understand that Kowalski, Rico and Private didn't want to talk about something as private as a wife Skipper had never spoke about before. It was more than ever obvious that Skipper was no one who talked a lot about his life.

And then she was able to understand it: "No one of you has ever asked him about his past, have you?"

All of them shook their head.

Private looked down at the dirty floor, letting the others know: "But somehow I accepted him as a father. The father I never had. I cannot believe the accusations are justified."

"YOU DID WHAT?"

"We threw them into the sewer."

"Which part of 'KILL THEM' was too difficult to understand? Now leave again and finish the mission this time. Don't return again and tell me they are still alive. DID YOU HEAR ME?"

"Yes, Sir!"


	14. Chapter 14: Extinct but not died out yet

**Chapter 14: Extinct, but not died out yet**

.

After their short sit-down they continued walking disoriented through the sewer; they were following rather fortuity than any sense of direction, but at least walking reduced the feeling of helplessness and upcoming claustrophobia. Now and then they checked one of the covers, but they were all locked.

"Kowalski, I'm tired... and hungry," Private whined as the kid he still was.

Rico tried to regurgitate fish, but instead of the appetizing odour of seawater-fish there were only gurgling sounds. "Wa?"

"It seems as if we have run out of food supply," the scientist pointed out the obvious.

Private's stomach rumbled as an answer.

"The only positive thing about this situation," Julien remarked, holding his nose with one hand and fanning the smelly air away, which was approaching from Rico's direction. He looked away and to the filthy water next to them. "I'm actually quite surprised that my royal nose has not committed suicide yet."

"We're doomed to die here." There was panic flowing in Marlene's voice. "My dream was to meet the Spanish-guitar-man before meeting death. KOWALSKI! WE NEED OPTIONS, MAN!"

This was the danger of people, who were not trained and prepared for death every day. They often lose their rag and turn into a danger for the whole team, not least because of spreading their panic onto other members of a team. Panic was like a disease. Once broken out it was affecting nearly everyone – only a few were able to withstand – and destructive.

Marlene grabbed Kowalski at his shoulders and shook him back and forth, while the others were watching her in fear. "I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE YET!"

"Is she going wild again?" Maurice whispered to Private.

"I hope not!" he replied.

"Ma… ma… mar… leeee… heeeen… stooo… hooo… op!"

Kowalski was surprised when she followed his request. All of her anger suddenly disappeared and she looked ashamed and sad onto the floor. "I'm sorry… I have lost my temper… again. Although…" - she sniffed - "although I had promised Skipper that it would not happen again."

"Marlene, we won't give up. Never. Not this easy," he comforted her patting her shoulder.

"Not this easy? You're kidding me," Maurice laughed sarcastically, the second victim. "We passed the Atlantic, got lost in a strange city, were caught by foreign zookeepers, assaulted by 'old friends' of your leader, then attacked by ninjas and since hours we're running around in this sewer-maze. And you call this EASY?"

There was surprised silence, while Maurice breathed heavily. Now and then they had seen Maurice angry, but during that very moment he was fury as they had never seen him before.

"YES, KOWALSKI! AND WHERE ARE YOU HIDING YOUR WHITEBOARD AND THE ABACUS? THEY ALWAYS 'APPEAR' SUDDENLY."

All looked at the king of the lemurs.

"Now that everyone is allowed to shout at Kowalski I didn't want to be left out," he explained.

The tall penguin sighed. A motivation speech was necessary, he was sure about that. But deep inside he knew that the disease 'panic' had already affected him too. He tried to think of a classic and usually working statement: "Okay, everyone. We've been through much worse…"

"Namely…?" Private asked doubting this assertion.

The scientist looked angry at his younger companion. "Like… like…"

He was clueless. There never had been a more desperate situation before. "OKAY! Okay… WE'RE DOOMED AND THERE IS NO HELP OR CONFIDENCE. ALL HOPE IS LOST. GONE. DEAD. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

He turned and looked at his whiteboard, which had appeared from somewhere. "I've run out of ideas. I thought about following the water, but I fear that we won't find an open passage into somewhere. It just ends into a dead end at a purification plant. There is no reception down here. And I cannot hear any public works."

He threw the whiteboard onto the floor. "I'm sorry."

They lapsed into silence, following their own thoughts. Kowalski thought about Doris, who had never returned his love. Rico's thoughts wandered around his beloved Miss Perky, who was sitting at home waiting for him. He wondered whether there would be ever a chance again to pet her hair. Private was picturing his wedding – that suddenly appeared far away and unreachable. Marlene was playing her favourite Spanish song on a Spanish air guitar, trying to fancy the man playing it. She was a little confused when Fred appeared next to him. Julien thought of Madagascar, the green trees, the late night parties and his mother telling him that he should get himself a queen – another reason why he had left Madagascar. He moved back from his imaginary projection of his mom. Maurice was remembering his oath of protecting the king whatever the costs were, while Mort eyed the feet of his king saying to himself: "As long as I can be with them, I'm fine."

And of course they all thought about Skipper.

"Let's be honest. Skipper concealed his past activities. Don't you think he might…"

Suddenly Rico's flipper was covering Maurice's mouth. There was no need for the nearly mute penguin to say a word; his face expression was conveying everything the king's right-hand-man needed to know: "Don't even think about finishing this sentence!"

"Rethinking the affair by regarding it from the point of view of an objective observer I need to agree to Maurice. Skipper's behaviour IS suspicious."

Two slaps hit Kowalski's face. One – the one hurting most – on the right and one – the one nearly missing him – on the left.

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!" Private shouted. "HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK IT!"

Rico approved his little companion's furiousness. He growled at Kowalski, giving him the most sinister look he was able to put onto his face. It was really frightening and all of his 'cute and cuddly'-ness was gone.

"Guys… guys… calm down." Marlene walked between them, knowing that it was probably not a good idea to stand between three well trained, angry military soldiers. But she had no other choice.

"Rico is right, there is no way, Skipper could have done something like killing a whole family," Julien agreed. "A whole 'royal' family."

"Skipper didn't kill him. That's enough proof," Private explained.

Sorrowful Kowalski looked at his whiteboard, which was still lying on the ground. He lifted it and suddenly it was gone. "I'm sorry, boys. But… you see… I cannot come up with any other explanation!"

Private looked at him angry. It wasn't frightening at all. "Just that you cannot come up with an explanation doesn't mean there is none."

"Yes! Listen to!" Rico nodded.

"Isn't this why we are here – wherever we are: To explain what he did, or rather if he did it," Private continued.

"He was seen with bloodstained feathers. Running away! What kind of excuse do you expect?" Kowalski interfered.

"I'm expecting an explanation! A good reasoned explanation!" the little penguin answered. Suddenly he looked sad. "Were you thinking this all the time?"

"I'm not sure what I think!" Kowalski shouted. "The proofs – the science – say he is guilty."

Marlene put a paw on his shoulder. "And what does your heart say?"

He took some time before answering. Then he said: "That he is not."

"HAHA! Well said, soldier!" a dark voice echoed through the sewer.

"Where is there?"

The penguins went into their fighting postures, peering into the dark shadows outside their flash light radius.

"Oh… let's say an old relative… rather less than more, though."

Out of the dark a white belly appeared, followed by a dark back. Its feet and beak were black; the feathers on his head were all black except for two white spots in front of both eyes. He looked like a penguin, but was much taller than Kowalski and his friends.

"What… who are you?" Kowalski asked.

"I'm a Great Auk, but you can call me G.A.," the bird explained.

Kowalski gazed at him and remarked: "This cannot be. They were exterminated 1844."

"And yet I'm standing in front of you, am I not?" The auk laughed.

"Kowalski, what is a Great Auk?" Marlene asked.

"A bird that lived… lives?" In real life, when people were losing relatives, they had to correct themselves changing the present term into past term. This odd time it was the other way around. "…in the Northern part of the Atlantic. The Latin name of the Great Auk is _pinguinus impennis_, and this in fact already explains everything. Although we _spheniscidae_ aren't related to the _pinguinus,_ we look alike – due to reasons I won't explain now – and therefore human explorers named us after the 'penguins' they knew from their home. But Great Auks were exterminated – or at least that's what I and science have thought – in the 19th century."

"In fact some of us survived. But I'm one of the last ten still living Great Auks. I'm living history." He smiled. "You see. The obvious can be fallacious."


	15. Chapter 15: Let me tell you a story

**Chapter 15: Let me tell you a story**

.

The friends eyed the unique stranger, who had suddenly emerged from the shadows. The scientist spoke up first: "Okay, let's say you're really a Great Auk, G.A.. But this doesn't tell us whether you're friend or foe."

"I'm a friend!" the Auk laughed. "Definitely."

"Can you prove it?"

"No."

This was an odd answer.

"But I could prevent you from walking confused and disoriented through the sewer. Of course only if you like."

"We are not confused and disoriented," Kowalski tried to bluff.

"Weird. I thought you were… all the time."

"How would you know that?" Kowalski hated poker.

G.A. smirked. "Perhaps because I was following you the whole time? Well, not the whole time. But since sometime during your little story."

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

Suddenly the auk disappeared. Kowalski winked, wondering whether he had talked to a hallucination caused by loss of food and sleep. But the others had talked to him too, hadn't they?

"I'm longer in this business than you're even on this planet," G.A.'s south British accent whispered into Kowalski's ear. The lieutenant's reflexes answered instead of his syrinx, causing an immediate attack against the invader of his grasp. But G.A. was prepared for it and dodged the stroke without any difficulty.

"You have much to learn, young Padawan!" the Auk quoted giggling.

Rico and Private wanted to help, but a short glance of G.A.'s black eyes stopped them right away. Behind the always laughing or smiling exterior was obviously a very talented, bright and serious fighter.

"I want to help you," he explained. "And this should have shown you, that I already could have eliminated you, if I had wanted. Now, ease, if you please."

"Why were you spying on us at first then?" Marlene asked.

"I wanted to find out who you are."

"And? Are you satisfied?" Kowalski questioned. Now that Skipper was gone, he was in charge of being all paranoid.

The auk's smile grew. "Yes. I was… in the end."

"Excuse me. It's obvious who 'I' am!" Julien posed in a very gay position – as usual.

"A Lady Gaga cosplayer?" G.A. bet not hiding his joking undertone. However, Julien wasn't amenable for fun about himself.

"WHAT? I am… your king. King Julien…" the self-proclaimed king continued his usual, narcissistic speech while the auk turned to Maurice and asked: "Aren't you annoyed by him from time to time?"

"You are a genius to notice it. Just let him finish, otherwise he gets a bad mood and no one – believe me – no one wants that to happen."

"I understand…"

"No… no you do not. You have not seen it yet."

"Maurice! I'm glorifying myself here – which is by the way actually your job – and you're distracting my listeners, who are eager to sunbath in my present."

"I… err… was just saying that you're even playing yourself down… due to modesty, your majesty. You're more remarkable than you say."

Julien eyed his right-hand man doubting at first, but obviously he was satisfied and answered: "I know. Thanks for pointing it out."

Kowalski turned to their new friend. "And you're not one of those Danish soldiers?"

"No… I'm working on my own. I'm… well… not a mercenary… but more like a bounty hunter," he explained. "Would you like to return to the world of the living, fresh air and sunlight, or would you prefer asking me silly questions down here, while they sentence your friend to death?"

"I wouldn't be angry if the world we are going to had something to eat," Private answered, rubbing his belly.

From somewhere G.A. drew out a bag. "Here, try these."

He reached a can of fish to everyone. Thanking and glad to get something to eat Private, Kowalski, Rico and Marlene immediately started to eat.

"They say 'hunger is the best relish'," Maurice looked at his portion in disgust, but tried it then anyway.

Of course there was someone whose world wasn't working this easy. "FISH? You want ME to eat fish?"Julien asked indignant.

"If you had shoes I would advise you to eat them. There surely is a recipe somewhere, written down by John Franklin," G.A. answered.

Kowalski giggled.

"I would eat a shoe that had been on those feet." Mort pictured his personal delicacy, while shovelling the fish into his mouth. Slowly Julien started to eat the odd diet, but his stomach was trying to kill him.

"Eat during walking. I know it's not healthy, but I don't want to waste any more time. And while your beaks… and mouths are replete with food it's my turn to tell a story. Okay?" He smiled. "You'll like it. I assure you!"

"Now, where to start? Back when I was young I was serving for the ADM – in my case it stands for Atlantic Defensive Military…"

"Wait…" Marlene interfered. "Is this purposely or just coincidence? Everyone is working for the ADM, but ADM can stand for five different institutions. Antarctica, America, Africa, Australia and now also Atlantic Defensive Military."

"In fact there are six," remarked G.A..

"Hey, has anyone noticed that Europe is the only continent, that's name doesn't start with 'A'?" Maurice noted thoughtfully.

"Six? What's the sixth?" Marlene ignored the lemur's questions, as did the others. The penguins preferred answering unison instead: "CLASSIFIED."

"You know what? I really hate that word. As long as you don't tell me it's 'Atlantis Defensive Military' it's fine."

The penguins and the auk looked into different directions whistling and trying to express nothing else than personified innocence.

"No… tell me this is a joke! Hey, what is Kowalski doing over there?"

The scientist had Skipper's walkman in his flipper and recorded his words: "Kowalski's log. Skipper was right, Marlene is indeed suspicious. She knows classified lowdown that she mustn't know."

"I can hear you… too."

The auk laughed and due to changing the topic again he continued with the story he wanted to tell his new friends: "To answer your question about the ADM: I think it's both. Purpose and coincidence. But back to my story. I was serving the ADM and my mission was to catch Erlendur."

Kowalski, Rico and Private gasped.

"Oh yes, the Erlendur you know as Mr. penguins-traitor-Nr-One. I want to explain this briefly, so that the mammals know what we're talking about." He looked at Marlene's and the lemurs' quizzical faces. "The man we're talking about sold information to our enemies and caused the death of Igor Sokolow, former head of the Russian polar bears and the father of the VERY revengeful Ilka Sokolow. And now the story.

"Decades ago the ADM – all ADM – were fighting against the enemy from the East: The communists. Your mother – Kowalski was the name, correct? – was most likely one of our spies who had not been uncovered and had stayed together with a member of the resistance after the war. Both sides tried to win without an outbreak of a warm war by setting up and spying. However, from time to time our agents were caught, although we couldn't explain why, and the fiend was informed about well planned tactics. The ADM investigated, but the agents had been random and finally someone spoke out what no one wanted to believe: The ADM itself had a mole in its higher ranks. And that brought me to the scene. It took me months to work myself through the paper work, but I found him. However I had no evidence, therefore I asked the senior officer to introduce me as a fellow officer and help me to investigate undercover. To make a long story short, after a while Erlendur stopped seeing me as a risk and started to get sloppy with his cover. And then during his mission in USSR I found out about his real aim: He believed in communism and wanted to help Lasar Blinow – Igor's rival who wanted to become head – to kill Igor, so that the war would finally become serious. They wanted to show the world that communism was the path the world had to choose, but thought that Igor was a coward.

Unfortunately I was too late. When I appeared at the scene, the head was already dead. All I could do was preventing the worse: Lasar and an outbreak. I did, but I choose the wrong option: Without giving it a second thought I told the world about the spy and the background of the assassination."

"You revealed the culprit? How could that be a wrong decision?" Marlene asked.

G.A. stopped and she nearly ran into him. He pointed with his wing at her. "That, otter, is what I want to teach you. At first it seems like the right choice, but I had totally forgotten two important things."

The listeners looked at him in excitement.

"First: Erlendur had a wife and a son. And second: As I already told you, Ilka is very revengeful." The auk continued walking. "Perhaps I did well telling the world the truth – as I thought was necessary back then; hey, I had been young and naive, just like you are now – but for his wife and his poor son it was the push into the worst nightmares."

The group lapsed into silence for a moment, before the auk ended: "As you can see, often things appear different than they are. Sometimes you cannot tell the world the truth, because it can provoke a storm. I want you to remember this."

"You feel guilty, don't you?" Private asked.

"Yes. People wanted to treat me like a hero because I could convince Ilka not to start the war, but all I see is Erlendur's face begging me not to tell anyone about him when he was taken to the death squad of the ADM. First I thought he was egoistic, but then I understood it. Because Ilka never had the chance to take revenge on Erlendur, he tried to get his son. I feel guilty for putting that little chick into those troubles."

"Is this also the reason why no one knows about you?" Kowalski asked. Everyone had heard about Erlendur's arrest, but the man who caught him was never brought to light.

"Indeed. But I think you lot have still work do to, haven't you?" G.A. suddenly stopped and pushed against a stone on the wall. A hidden path appeared. "Take this way and you'll return to Frederiksberg in half an hour."

Kowalski's brain cried havoc. How did the auk know about their aim? How did the auk know that their friend was in danger? Kowalski wanted to slap himself for noticing it earlier.

"Hold on. G.A., why do you know about Frederiksberg?" the scientist asked. "G.A.?"

But the great auk had disappeared.

"Where did he go?"

"How was he able to vanish while standing in the middle of our group?" Private asked surprised.

They eyed their surroundings but were without luck. The auk was gone and had not left any hint.

"This is creepy," Mort said once more.

Suddenly they heard the sound of vomiting. They turned and saw Julien leaning against the wall.

"My royal stomach does not approve fish," he explained. "I understand Rico know, that he has to vomit…" The rest of the sentence perished into another unappetising sound.

"We wait until he's finished and then we're following this path," Kowalski said.

Private looked into the passage. "You really trust that weird bird?"

"I cannot understand why, but yes. Obviously I start listening to my guts – although it's technically not possible." The scientist smiled.

"I hope we will be there in time," Marlene said worried.

"We will."


	16. Chapter 16: Danger

Hi everyone!

Yes, I've been very productive last month and I'm really glad about it. I won't try your patience anymore, because the great final is within your and mine reach, although there is only a small chapter today.

I hope you enjoy it anyway,

Yours Oxymora!

**Chapter 16: Danger**

_Wherever you go, I will find you!_

Skipper opened his eyes in horror and gasped for air. Suddenly he felt claustrophobic and the air was defying entering his lungs. Still chained to the chair he nearly pushed it over with his frantic not balanced movements. Returning to reality he steadied himself again, clamed and took a deep breath.

"Hoover dam, I need to stop sleeping in here. It just causes nightmares," he thought. "And I'm already part of a nightmare."

He tried to move, but he was unable to change his position. His body was either burning or numb due to his immobility, and sometimes the itching itself was enough to drive him crazy. But then there was that humming background sounds of all the technology that was continuously breaking against his ears.

"Remember your training, soldier!" he reminded himself, unable to slap his own back of the head.

The courtroom, the interrogation, Blue's strokes and insults, even Skipper's friends seeing him in chains and accused, wasn't as terrible as waiting for his punishment now – well, perhaps his friends seeing him was. He hoped that at least Kowalski and the team together with the others had been clever enough to leave Denmark, before Blue started to follow them too. However, he was impressed that they had found him. Obviously he was a better teacher than he thought.

Suddenly the door burst open.

"Madam, you cannot enter this room. Blue orders were strict. No one except him is allowed to enter the room." It was Manfredi's voice. It was a little less self-confident than Skipper was used to.

"Excuse me, Manfredi. Obviously I missed out that Blue took over my status." The female voice was calm, but extremely authoritative.

"No… no of course… course he didn't," the penguin answered uneasy.

"And then I've seen that a tall scientist and even a mammal had entered this cell… without Blue's permission. But I can't?" She smiled certain of victory.

"Yeah… I mean no… a… about that…"

"Quiet!" She ordered. And he followed.

Skipper was very familiar with the figure that was standing in the door.

"Freija-Solveig," he said. „I wish we could have met at different circumstances again."

„Hey, Skippy," she answered with a voice colder than ice. „We both know, that after you had left me alone in my brother's room that faithful night, this day would come. I have changed a lot since then, haven't I?"

Before Manfredi could say more, she had closed the door right in front of his beak.

The prisoner eyed the head of the academy and gulped. He had not expected that things would get even more unpleasant, but obviously fate really wanted to torture him. After all it was his old fiancée.

.

"Hey, Manfredi." Johnson returned to his friend and handed over lunch. Immediately he noticed the worried face. "What's wrong?"

"Freija was here."

He laughed. "And you weren't able to talk to her…"

"I did, but she entered the room without permission."

"She's the head. She needs no permission. But have you checked if Skipper is still alive?"

"He is." Manfredi nodded. After she had left, wearing an even more stern and hateful face expression, his first action had been to check Skipper.

"Good, because his last meal is about to arrive."

That minute a penguin with a serving cart appeared at the corner. Manfredi thought that the scene would had been more impressive if the cart's wheels had not been oiled and squeaked sinister.

"You're watching too many films," he told himself.

The penguin stopped his cart in front of the guards and let them check it.

"Honestly boys, who would try to save him?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"Duty is duty, Sverre. Okay, you're allowed to pass."

"Tak!" he thanked in Danish and entered the cell.

.

"Hey, Skipper."

"Sverre. You're still here?"

"Yes, of course. I'm working for Blue now. He's doing a remarkable job." He went to the control station and shut down the system.

"Well, he always did."

The penguin smiled and carried the dish to the prisoner.

"Yes. When he starts something, he does it up to one hundred percent." Suddenly the soldier switched into a whispering tone. "And he wants to kill your friends."

"They are still in Denmark?"

"Yes. They attacked them right after they left Frederiksberg. Although it was ordered, they didn't kill them, but they probably want to finish it now."

"Why are you telling me this?" Skipper asked leery.

Sverre smiled and a key appeared in his beak. "Do you really think after all those years you've been at this academy and serving and teaching and after you've put your life on the line to save people, there isn't at least one person in this country that doesn't think you're not guilty?"

"And this is not a trick?"

"Skipper, if there had been a medal for paranoia, it would have carried your name. You hit the bottom, why would anyone want to trick you now?"

"We're here to get the prisoner. They want to pronounce the sentence."

After Sverre had left and Manfredi had checked that Skipper was still in his cell and chained, another penguin had arrived. But when he opened the door, he found the cell empty.


	17. Chapter 17: Surrounded

Hello my beloved readers!

Finally I'm able to present to you the prelude of the final chapters. Gosh, if I had known how difficult fighting scenes can be, I would have come up with a different plot. (Yes, this story is the first time that I really need to describe action and whenever there is a fighting scene I have to fight my fantasy first.) Because there was so much waiting time to your tea, I have here a long chapter again.

Enjoy it! ^.^

Yours Oxymora!

.

**Chapter 17: Surrounded**

"Fresh air!" Private gasped for the clean, chill gas. It felt nearly like eternity that they had tasted the sweetness of freedom and had felt the tingly touch of sun beams.

"It's already midday!" Kowalski determined the time by the position of the sun, while the others hid in a bush. Just like G.A. had told them, the exit of the path had ended right behind the palace underneath a fake stone. The last thing they wanted was to be noticed by a passing guard; therefore they tried to show as little as possible of themselves.

"Look at all the people here," Marlene noticed.

"That's a good sign," Kowalski remarked. "This means there was no judgment yet and they are waiting for it. Skipper is still alive."

"I hope you are right!"

"What does 'I hope' mean, Private. Have I ever been wrong?" The others were stuck for an answer, while Private and Marlene just exchanged a glance. Kowalski meant it as a rhetorical question anyway and instead of waiting for a response, he immediately changed the topic. He showed them his white board and started to talk.

"I want to explain my thoughts to you. Someone tries to hinder us helping Skipper. Either that someone is the government itself - and for this I can only use the scientific term 'we are toast'" he pointed at a crown and then at a stickman "or the real culprit. I hope between those two is no 'equals to'. But I doubt that. If it had been the government Skipper would already be dead." He cleaned his board again. "Most likely the culprit is someone important and able to intrigue. But first of all we need to enter this building and get Skipper out of there."

"How do you think we can get Skipper out of the super-save-high-tech prison?" Marlene asked.

"Oh, we won't try to get him out of the prison…" Kowalski answered with a grin on his beak.

.

Sitting in his office, Blue watched the video recording of an observation camera. Behind the monitor was a whole wall consisting of screens, displaying nearly every single place, corner and room of the academy. The room was only illuminated by the dim light of the HD-monitors.

"What is that?" Freija-Solveig appeared behind him and only made herself felt by starting to talk in Danish. The screen right in front of the little blue penguin showed a group of three penguins, four lemurs and an otter that were attacked by masked penguins with goggles. The green moving pictures revealed the poor fight of the strangers; hence the attackers had no difficulty overwhelming them. Only a second later Freija-Solveig asked: "Infrared?"

"Yeah… those seem to be friends of Skipper. They were also in the court room," the penguin explained and pointed at a picture that was lying on his desk. It showed the same group, but this time they were standing next to a wall, nearly covered by all the other spectators.

"Skipper's friends… That is truly interesting. I visited him just minutes ago and was surprised that Manfredi said I was not authorised to see Skipper… according to your instructions."

Blue noticed the little threat in her voice and was alerted. "He probably misunderstood something. I told him that I wasn't feeling well about you visiting Skipper. After all he's the one who ki… who did this horrible thing to your family. I don't want you to go through all this another time."

"That's my business, not yours. Your business is the safety of this academy. And this" she pointed at the screen "is something I don't want to see. Who are the attackers?"

"I try to figure that out. They have the academy's material arts style… I'm sorry; you recognized that too of course. But I don't know the reasons of the attacking."

The head of the academy eyed her safety officer and then replied: "Some kind of weird revenge? What has happened to them?"

Blue turned towards another screen and selected another video. It showed the masked penguins taking away the defeated and carrying them into the sewer. Only one animal – it was one of the mouse lemurs – was taken somewhere else. The little blue penguin explained: "Those seven were abandoned in the sewer, while Mathis – here – was returned to the zoo. I've already sent a squad to find them and someone to bring Mathis. We need explanations! I'll let you know when I discovered something new. Therefore I stay here and cannot remain steadfastly at your side. They're taking Skipper back to the court now, aren't they?"

He turned only to notice that Freija-Solveig's attention was drawn by something else. He followed her gaze to a monitor.

"WHAT IS THAT?" he shouted.

"Isn't it obvious? It's a dancing lemur. Impressive moves…" A smile appeared on the head's beak as she followed the boogieing body of a ringtail lemur. She knew exactly where she had seen the animal before. "Perhaps he pronounces his booty too much. I'm more a fan of a good technique of the feet – like tap-dancing. Oh look…" – she giggled – "I'm obviously not the only one. Blue, I think I've found three of your missing persons, but I can hardly picture Skipper being friend with this party animal."

She followed the moves of the lemur impressed – he definitely owned the groove and loved the growing group of cheering spectators. Behind the dancer stood his DJ producing the music for the dance interlude, while a third lemur was entranced by the moving feet.

Blue wanted to respond, when a red bulb flashed and a horn sounded. Through the door Tawaki appeared. Surprised he looked at Freija-Solveig and then positioned to face both of his superiors.

"Tawaki, finding the intruders isn't a cote red alarm," the little penguin stated.

"That's not it, Sir. I'm really sorry, but… well…" while he was stammering the tension was all written over his face. "'He' has escaped. Skipper has escaped the prison."

.

While Julien enjoyed the cheering crowd that had build up around him in front of Frederiksberg, Kowalski, Rico, Private and Marlene sneaked into the palace again. They watched the guards getting suspicious by the noise and then distracted, and found their way into the safety area.

Marlene was last and suddenly drawn back by Kowalski. She looked at him angry. "What was that for?"

He pointed at a camera that was now moving into another direction again. She nodded understanding and apologising. She wasn't as trained as the others of course and still had to learn a lot. Usually Kowalski would not have taken her with them on this mission, but they needed a fourth 'man', while the lemurs did what they were good at: Attracting attention. The scientist and strategist of the team knew that freeing Skipper from his cell or the court room was impossible – well, it would had been possible if Skipper had not forced him to take a break from inventing whereby the development of the death ray was thrown back by months… or they had a whole army at flipper, which was unfortunately not the case. Therefore they had to attack during the minutes Skipper was transferred from his cell to the court room using the hopefully still existing moment of surprise. While the three of them fought, Marlene had the task to free him from his fetters.

They were about to continue lurking in the dead space, when suddenly they were surrounded by half a dozen guards, all of them wearing swords. Kowalski, Rico and Private jumped into fighting position – the front place still empty. Since Skipper had been kidnapped they had not found the time to reposition themselves. Marlene was standing behind them, unsure what to do.

"I hope that was not my fault," she said.

"No… they knew we would come or are here," Kowalski answered. "The time period between the camera movement and them appearing here was too short."

One guard approached a little and announced with a slight Danish accent in English: "Surrender and nothing will happen to you."

"Is there a guarantee?" Kowalski asked distrusting.

The guard smiled and the scientist noticed that he had seen the movements of these men the evening before. Their attackers were in front of them.

"You aren't real guards, are you?"

"No… we are not."

"'Surrender and nothing will happen to us'," Kowalski repeated the words. "What do you think? That we hatched only today? Now that you show us your faces means that you won't let us leave alive."

The leader smiled, but somehow the smile was not reaching his eyes. "I underestimated you, Kowalski."

The penguin turned and nodded into the direction of one of his man, who was standing beneath the observation camera. He returned the nod and attached something to the camera's wires. To all of them it was clear that they were manipulating the video material.

"This time we will finish you off."

"We will see…" Kowalski tried to make it sound as self-assured as possible, although he was not. There was still a place empty in their team – literally. He looked at the spot and tried to imagine Skipper standing there.

But it was only a shadow on the floor… a shadow that was growing. And an instant later a well known figure was standing as their fourth men on his position. The eyes of everyone grew big. Was it possible?

"SKIPPER!"

"No one will harm my friends!" he said.

The attackers moved back. This was something they had not expected and they knew that Skipper was a good fighter, while his friends were able to see their enemies now too. The advantage of the evening before was gone.

"I don't know yet for whom you're working, but you will tell me when we're finished with you! I'm very disappointed, Per. I thought you wouldn't become a tool to some filthy schemer."

"That I have to hear these words coming from you! You are the traitor."

The others waited, but Skipper was again not answering at all. And then it hit him. Although his friends had heard what he was accused with, they had stayed. Although he had denied explaining himself, they were trying to rescue him. Although the government was hunting him down and he had ordered his men to leave, they were not only literally backing him. He suppressed the wish to turn around and thank them. Instead he saved his gratitude and focused on the fight.

"Men! Don't hold back anymore; show them that you can keep pace with former academy graduates. Marlene, stay back."

"Yes, Sir…" Kowalski, Rico and Private answered, while Kowalski thought silently that Skipper still wasn't allowed to give orders.

And then they were attacked. One chose Private as an opponent, Kowalski and Rico each were attacked by two and the head of the group stayed focused on Skipper. The fake guards remembered very well, that the strange penguin with the Mohawk had a special ability; however, they were a little surprised when the chain saw appeared out of his beak. Easily he blocked the swords and the toy-looking weapon furrowed the blades, ruining the keenness that once had existed and they had been proud of.

"What now?" he asked, grinning devilish.

One of the foes blocked the saw, while the other rammed his sword into the mechanism. With a faltering sound the chain saw stopped. Anger appeared on Rico's face and he was about to counter attack with a blow of his broken weapon, when Private crashed from the side against him.

"Sorry… sorry… ah!" he nearly was stabbed by the sword of his enemy. But before the fake guard could try to harm the little penguin, Rico's strike hit him. For a second he was confused by the sudden collusion and then collapsed, losing his consciousness. The incident opened Rico's defence and the attacker, who still had his weapon, saw his chance. He aimed for the Mohawk wearing penguin. Out of the corner of his eye Rico noticed that a sharp sword was pointing at him, however it was too late. He wanted to dodge it, fearing his movement was too slow, when Private's flipper hit the blade from below and the edge – still sharper than the penguin would had expected – shortened the feathers of this Mohawk. The small, black pieces danced towards the ground, while the guard, who had put all his energy into this blow – expecting it to be the last – lost his balance a little. A perfect chance.

"Concentrate… remember this special move, Skipper had taught you…" Private thought and used his vim to turn around and kicking the opponent with his foot from behind. His heel hurt the back of the guard's head, who was surprised to see little stars appearing in front of his eyes. Before he was able to understand what had happened to him, he collapsed right next to his already knocked-down fellow.

Meanwhile Kowalski had found himself surrounded by two enemies.

"What now, brainiac? There is no special weapon you could use to defend your life."

The scientist screened his surroundings. There were pictures on the wall showing different famous people, who had taught at the school, one armour in the shape of a minimized human and a blue strip of carpet was running down the hallway. Then he eyed the two guards and took the measure of them. Without his abacus he needed some extra time for the calculations, but pulling it out would have caused the breakdown of his defence.

"Oh… I DO have my most special weapon all the time with me!" Kowalski smiled confident of success, trying to induce the most terrifying images into the head of his opponents.

It worked. Remembering the things that they had heard about the scientist – or should they call him mad scientist? – and his freaky, usually nearly-the-world-destroying inventions, they stepped back a little. If something was exploding the next moment, they hoped it would not harm them too. Moving backwards was what Kowalski wanted them to do. Now they were not standing on the carpet anymore, but on the parquet beneath; one on the right flipper side and the other on the left flipper side of the lieutenant. Behind him he heard the others fighting, seeing them move in the reflections of the portraits encircling mirrors, which were part of the frame. Private and Rico had already reduced their enemies down to one. It was time for Kowalski to act too.

He jumped to the front and slid only a few inches in the direction of the armour. The rough surface of the carpet slowed him down and he stopped very soon.

The fake guards laughed. "And we thought you were at least a genius scientist if not a good fighter. Sliding on a carpet is impossible. But even if, that armour is fixed, it would not have helped you anyway."

Thinking Kowalski's last statement had been a bluff, they wanted to move into his direction, sure he had no weapon expect for his bare flipper, which were not famous for their fighting skills. But the penguin had other plans. He grabbed the edge of the carpet and rolled to the side, rolling himself up in the blue, well cared wool.

"What…?" one attacker could say before he fell over. The other was fast enough to jump over the moving fibre and landed just where he expected Kowalski to be, ramming his blade into the ground. Triumphantly he drew it out again, expecting the red liquid to colour the carpet. Then he noticed that the resistance had been too small and not the tiniest drop of blood appeared on the fibre or was on the blade.

"Surprise, surprise", Kowalski's voice said from behind him. Then the scientist hit the spot at the neck, which he knew carried every penguin into slumber. The last thing the fake guard noticed was a short pain.

Suddenly Kowalski's gut gave him a hard time. Meanwhile he knew what it meant and parried the hit from behind. The other attacker was back on his feet and tried to finish, what his fellow had failed to do. Surprised the scientist stumbled backwards and felt the cold metal of the plate armour. The fake guard had been right. Kowalski was not able to move it by pushing with his back against it, but there was something sticking out. His plan had contained getting out of his enemies way until he found another way to approach him, but when his flipper found the hilt of a knife he changed his tactic. Just in time he was able to pull it out of the armour's scabbard to bring it between his face and the point of the attacker's blade. He pushed the fake guard backwards. Used to sword fights the enemy returned the force, adding all his strength into his flippers, knowing that a less trained and less strong scientist, which Kowalski was, had no chance to stand up to his heft. But this was not the scientist's aim. He let himself fall, landed on his flipper and rushed his opponent off his feet with a simple Karate move. While the fake guard was still in air Kowalski added another kick and the attacker found himself leaning to the wall.

"Now wait", he said angry.

"Not interested", Kowalski answered and darted the knife. It hit the wall far above the head of the fake guard.

"You should need…" the attacker was about to say, when one of the heavy pictures hit his head. He was immediately unconsciousness.

"You should know: The most special weapon is my brain", Kowalski informed him and tipped his head.

.

Skipper still felt the stiffness of his limbs, which had been fixed to the point that he had not had any chance to move. Hence his actions were everything, but smooth. He had difficulty to dodge the blows of his enemy and even if this fake guard would have shown any opening, Skipper would not have found the time to use it. He pulled one of the pictures off the wall and used it as a shield. The stern face of an elderly African penguin with a fake moustache looked at him.

"I'm sorry to misuse your portrait, admiral de Ruyter", Skipper apologised to the penguin. In the mirrors of the frame the head of the four men team could see a sword lying not far away from him next to two already passed out guards. Behind them Rico and Private tried to hit the last remaining attacker, but he was good with blocking. Skipper tossed the picture in the direction of his enemy and used the little time of the distraction to back flip. When he put down his flipper to stabilize his weakened body, it felt the hilt under his feathers. He lifted the sword and blocked the fake guards blow.

"I'm impressed, Skipper. For a moment I thought you weren't as good as back in the old days, but this was a nice chess move. And your men seem a little bit more motivated then they used to last night."

Skipper could see the signs of Rico's chain saw; however the blade was still polished and reflected the happenings behind him. Kowalski appeared at the back of Rico's and Private's opponent, who got distracted enough to overlook one of the dynamite expert's left hooks.

"Seems as if you're one against four", Skipper said.

"Hmm…" The intention of a strategic withdrawal appeared on the guards face. His men were down and he had no intention to be arrested by the real guard of Frederiksberg. After all he had been here on a secret mission of his superior. A mission the head of the academy was not allowed to know. The appearance of Skipper had caused his men to gain all their confidence back – at least that was what he thought. But before he could move backwards and disappear in one of the secret passages behind the walls of the castle, a heavy meal tray knocked upside his head. He fell right in front of Skipper and behind him Marlene stood holding the tray.

"Marlene!" Skipper shouted.

"Yes. I thought of helping out. I found this down the hallway."

"Which part of the words 'Marlene, stay back' was too difficult to understand?"

"Oh… I stayed at his back", she bended his words.

He sighed, knowing that any further arguing was pointless. Instead he explained his friends: "Hurry… we have to leave, before…"

"Before I arrive?" Blue's voice sounded through the hallway. "In that case you were too slow."

Immediately guards – this time real ones – surrounded them, pointing their halberds in the direction of the five friends. Between two of the keen, shimmering metal points the little penguin appeared. His head wasn't even able to touch the weapon, and still the authority was noticeable.

"The council has found you guilty. You will be sentenced to death, Skipper."


	18. Chapter 18: Bird vs Bird

Hey my dear readers and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you for all your support during the last year.

And this time I want to thank very much TheMusicBullet. She betareaded this chapter. (The new year granted me a betareader.)

Have fun reading! ^.^

Yours Oxymora

**Chapter 18: Bird vs. Bird**

After Tawaki's report of Skipper's escape, Blue had left the control room and had ordered his first man to have an eye on the screens. If anything else was happening, he wanted an immediate report. Because he had seen guards patrolling through the corridor only minutes ago, it had taken Tawaki a moment to notice that the time indication on the screens had stopped to run. Blue and a group of his men were on their way to the front of the castle, when they changed the direction guided by the information they received from the control room and headed towards a certain hallway.

.

Meanwhile, Freija-Solveig returned to her private rooms. She needed a calm place, but her academy was turning upside down. She needed to think. She needed to make decisions now. And the only place where she could find this rest was her home. She felt lost and helpless again. After the death of her whole family, she had not been sure whether she had had the strength to lead the academy. Only by hers and Skipper's mentor's guide she had found a way to show that she was the legal leader of the academy and worth of being worshipped as the rightful head. She thought she had had the academy under control, even after her mentor's death; and now she found that the dark past had caught up with her. She was clueless of how to act.

She reached her huge working desk she had inherited from her father, and sat down. Leaning back in her seat she ran a look over all the documents that were lying on the desktop. Graduations, contracts, correspondences; everything was in a proper order.

"Wait…" she froze for a moment. Not everything was in its proper order. There were photographs, which she had not placed there. Her blood ran cold.

"Someone has been in my private rooms," she thought. "Someone has been in here and had been able to trick the security system."

Very slowly, she turned around. The words of her mentor appeared in her head: "Never feel too safe."

She hadn't checked her private rooms since the new system had been installed, and she had always felt safe in them. The idea that someone might break in and threaten her life had been far away from her – and suddenly it was so close. How wrong she had been. Before she took a look at the photographs she stood up and looked over her place. She did not expect that the trespasser would still be there, but at least it made her feel a little more relaxed to see that he or she was not present.

From beneath her desk she took a rapier, and minutes later, she was sure that she was alone and that no bugging devices had been installed. Freija-Solveig returned to her desk and lifted the pictures. She was shocked when she saw what they revealed. There were three of them. One was showing Skipper with a knife bending over her stabbed brother. The next showed him standing above him, his face unmistakable. And the third showed him leaving the scene.

The feelings from that night returned. She heard the sound of the storm, the sound of the guards approaching; she smelled the scent of fresh blood and Skipper's unique odour. But she could not remember that there had been another person. Who could have been there?

Her eyes widened. "Oh my…"

She jumped onto her feet and ran to the door. She burst it open and found Manfredi standing in front of it.

"Manfredi!"

"Freija!" His trained reflexes shouted for action, but he was able to calm them. "I am very sorry. I didn't know Sverre was one of Skipper's old students. We cannot find him, hence we believe he has helped Skipper to trick the system and… well… us."

He pointed at his friend Johnson, who was standing behind him. Both of their faces were showing nothing other than guilt. Unsure what to do next, and feeling awkward for not being able to present the strong man he wanted to be, he scratched his scar.

"Manfredi. I can trust you, right?" She placed a flipper above his, ignoring his words and his disenchanted mood.

"S… sure", he answered puzzled.

"And I can trust you too, Johnson?" she confirmed, and looked at the second penguin without unhanding Manfredi.

He nodded. "Sure. Why do you have to ask?"

"I need to tell you something. Something urgent. Do you know these pictures?"

She showed the photographs, she still had with her, to the soldiers.

Both gasped. "Blue said he didn't want to show you those!"

"He didn't. I found them in my room… only minutes ago. Someone has placed them onto my desk."

"We didn't want to believe the accusations until he showed us those. I still cannot understand why Skipper had done it." Manfredi shook his head in grief. "I trusted that man a lot and actually, I still owe him something. But… not under these circumstances. But wait… unbeknownst to you someone was in your room?"

"Yes, but that isn't the problem here. I need to tell you something…"

Freija-Solveig pulled him through the door and gave Johnson the sign to follow them.

.

"The council has found you guilty. You will be sentenced to death, Skipper," Blue announced in English. Then he said, turned towards the rest of the surrounded: "And you are arrested. By helping Skipper you are now charged with being an accessory after the fact. Please, don't cause any more trouble; otherwise you will increase your punishment."

He changed the language and ordered one guard in Danish. The guard nodded and with the help of two other soldiers they handcuffed the passed out enemies; each was carried away by one of Blue's men. While six soldiers disappeared, another group of ten appeared.

"Skipper, I hope you have a plan!" Marlene exclaimed, with worry in her voice.

"I thought you had a plan." The addressed responded, but beheld his lieutenant.

"The initial situation has changed… My plan is ruined."

"Well… then I can only say: It has been a pleasure to serve…" he paused and closed his eyes for a moment, then he continued "…have you as friends."

There was no sound of the group that had sneaked behind Blue's men during the last minutes until Sverre shouted: "This isn't the end yet, Skipper!"

Using their bō, a Japanese long staff weapon, as a pole, Sverre and a group of five other penguins leaped over the guards and jumped into fighting positions. They stood now as a defence wall between both parties.

"The next traitor…" Blue hissed. „Don't you think you have already caused enough trouble by freeing Skipper with your special authorization – the one you _once_ had – and smuggling him out of this prison?"

"Perhaps… but instead of running away like the coward you claim him to be, he went to help his friends. I don't know what happened that night, but as a former student of Skipper we cannot sit still. I know you are angry and I know Miss Admiral is having a hard time, but you are charging the wrong person."

"Why do you think that?" Blue nodded into the direction of the camera. Tawaki understood his superior and immediately initiated proceedings, while the Little Penguin continued, "Perhaps I have proof?"

"Then show us!" The moment Sverre talked, he knew Blue had no other intentions than just doing as demanded. His beak turned into an evil smile that only foreshadowed the worst of all possibilities. To fill the position of the head of the security one had to be a good intelligence agent. No… one had to be the best. And Blue was not only a good intelligence agent with a huge network of confidential informants and leakers, but also a great fighter. Skipper knew that without the help of the ADM he never would have stayed underground for all the time. They believed the story he had told them. But the ADM's flippers had been tied as soon as the Danes had found Skipper. Meddling into the private affairs of a country was nothing any ADM was allowed to do, and if it was done anyway, it would cause a huge political crisis. However, they had obviously allowed Kowalski and the others to come for Skipper's rescue – which rather more than less reminded him of a one way ticket. Skipper knew that his friends had no chance…

…at least, as long as Blue was with his men. A group without his leader was less dangerous.

"I would like to know your thoughts. Believe me, you cannot escape." Blue eyed his major enemy.

"Perhaps I don't want to…"

The sparkle that lit up Skipper's eyes alarmed Blue. Although his mind told him to resist he stepped back; and Skipper used this small move to attack. While front flipping he grabbed the soldier at his shoulders, landed right behind him and used his momentum to throw him above his head and the heads of the guards. Everyone stood still in surprise and forgot to act against the fugitive. Skipper slipped in between the much taller soldiers and appeared above Blue, who was lying on the floor.

"This is a fight just between you and me," he said, and pushed him against the wall. Soundless, a small brick moved backwards and both birds disappeared behind a wall into a secret path. When the soldiers were finally able to act and tried to open the secret door again, it was blocked from the inside.

"And he has left us again..." Sverre said.


	19. Chapter 19: The Truth?

Hey,

After all this time the end is finally ahead. I think it is quite funny, that the second most hits are from Denmark. Mange tak, mine neighbours! (I was in Denmark once – only an hour or so – but I liked those brick-houses and we went to the beach (with the car XD for people who don't know it: When they 'go' to the beach, they drive with the car until they literally reach the water) and my friend bought something in a Danish bakery... I think I gained weight by only standing in there. :D)

There is a little Danish in this chapter, but what it means is described, don't worry ;)

And a little hint concerning the end of this chapter: There's nothing more elusive than an obvious fact. (Yes, I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan :D)

Have fun reading,

Yours Oxymora

.

**Chapter 19: The Truth?**

The secret door was closed and meanwhile, showed no sign that it was hiding a passage anymore. Three soldiers stood in front of it and pushed random bricks. Because they had been standing with their backs to it and due to Skipper's incredible fast movements, they had not had the chance to see what he had done to open the gate – but Kowalski had. However, by luck one of the soldiers had pressed the key-point, but the secret door stayed closed.

"He must have blocked it from the inside," Kowalski thought.

The rest of the soldiers still pointed their weapons at the group, but the uncertainty was written all over their faces. Blue had trained them to follow his orders; now that he was gone, they were unsure of how to react. This was the huge difference between the training of Skipper and Blue, and why the head of the academy never nominated the Little Blue Penguin as leading teaching master. Skipper taught his men to work as a group even when the commanding officer was absent. The moment his old teacher had acted, Sverre had known that he wanted to give them an advantage. His men combined with Skipper's men were a group of nine soldiers – including him, excluding the otter – and Blues' men were twenty, with increasing number the longer they waited. In addition, Blue had given an order to someone; Sverre guessed that he had asked for backup and the 'proof'.

Sverre's grip on the bō tightened. "We need to act now. Kowalski, Rico, Private, we don't have the time for long introductions. I'm Major Sverre, and if you want to leave this country alive and with Skipper, you have to follow my orders. Take care of the left flank; we rearm you in a minute. Mats..."

"Ja!" The penguin to Sverre's right nodded.

Alerted by the talk, the three soldiers, who examined the wall, turned around just in time to see how one of Sverre's men used his staff to block the halberds, tilting two with a smooth movement and whipping them out of the soldiers' flippers. Using the other side of his bō, he hit the vital-point of an unarmed soldier. The guard collapsed immediately.

Sverre caught one halberd, and one of his soldiers the other halberd.

"Here. Your weapons..."

"I have no idea of how to fight with these!" Kowalski informed, feeling at a loss when holding the unfamiliar tool. Rico took one of them and decided that a fight was the right time to learn the technique of a new weapon. After a few seconds, he was able to handle it as if he had exercised with halberds for years.

"This penguin is unbelievable," Kowalski thought, and tried to copy the movements of his friend. However, he wasn't successful, and lost his balance due to the heavy head again and yet again.

Sverre eyed Private, and concluded that he was still too small to use such a long weapon.

"No offence, little Private, but you won't be able to fight with halberds... yet. Use your flippers; I know Skipper has taught you some good moves."He smiled encouragingly, before he entered the fray.

Marlene stood apart and watched the scene. Of course, the members of the parties knew each other, and frequently, she could see two fighting soldiers debating about who was on the 'right' side and who was only a tool. They got all worked up about their position to the point where they forgot to use their techniques and just pressed staffs against poles and vice versa, using their strength to push the other backwards. Only Sverre, his lieutenant Mats, Rico, and Kowalski were fighting multiple enemies at the same time. The scientist had still had difficulty balancing and therefore, also to using his weapon, but after he had swapped arms with Mats, he was also able to knock down his enemies. The idea of using a staff as a weapon was as old as humankind, and the birds had to admit that it was a good idea. Therefore, Kowalski had trained bōjutsu style before.

Suddenly, one of Sverre's men stumbled over the askew rug and fell onto the ground. Now that the resistance was gone, the guard, who had fought the soldier, tilted forwards, but rebalanced himself at the last second. Only his heavy halberd head dropped down. The soldier saw himself already pierced in his mind's eye, but then, a shadow appeared next to him and a fist boxed the metal away. It ran into the ground right next to the soldier's head and only left behind a small indentation in the wood. The weapon had pulled the soldier to the front, where on the shocked face of the enemy was in front of him. It was obvious that he had not had the interest in killing an actual friend, and now that no blood had been spread, relief peeled away to reveal shock and guilt. The soldier on the ground turned his head towards the saviour and saw the penguin who was one of Skipper's new men. It was the youngest of the three.

Noticing that the guard had no intention to continue the fight, Private also stopped his offense. If there was a way to end this unnecessary violence, he wanted to take it.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes I am." To his surprise, the voice of the soldier sounded high-pitched, just as if it belonged to a girl.

"Svea, det gør mig ondt. Jeg..." the guard apologised and wanted to explain that his intentions were not to harm her, but he wasn't able to finish.

"Jeg ved..." the warrior smiled instead, telling him that everything was clear.

Puzzled by the words Private wasn't able to understand and the sound of the voice, he stuttered: "A... are you a... a... girl?"

"Yes... you seem surprised," she noticed, while getting back to her feet.

"Sure... I thought you were a male."

"I hope you don't want to say, that girls are too weak for being soldiers?"

Something in her voice told him, that showing any approval to this prejudices would have caused a terrible outcome. Therefore he just shook his head, although he was gentleman enough to think that a man had to protect a woman. He had met some female soldiers before, but none of them had looked as manly as this one did – not that there was a huge difference between the physical appearance of male and female penguins.

A fourth person approached to the group. It was Mats, who pointed his halberd at Blue's guard.

"What is this chit-chat about? On which side are you on now?"

"I'm..." – the soldier's eyes wandered across the corridor, and he noticed that all the other guards were defeated, but the rhythmic up and down motion of their chest told him that not a single penguin was dead – "I'm not sure. I don't want to fight friends."

"Neither did the others. All of us are fighting halfhearted," Sverre said, who appeared next to his first man and pushed Mats' halberd towards the ground. "But we have a special relationship, in this case. I guess that's why we have the upper hand."

"There is proof, you know..." Blue's man answered. "It was not shown, because the pictures are too brutal."

"When I was in Skipper's cell and told him that his friends were in danger, I looked into Skipper's eyes, and I tell you, he is innocent. If I wasn't as sure as I am, I would not have opened his chains, tricked the security system, and showed him a way to leave the room. I believe that the eyes are the window to the soul." There wasn't even the slightest bit of doubt in his voice.

Private nodded in agreement. "I share this opinion. Or rather we do."

Although Sverre's words had been a little sappy, the guard was impressed by the faith these men had in their commander. He never had had the chance to get to know Skipper, but only had seen him training his men – which had been no bed of roses – and the well known friendly fight between him and Blue, which could not have been less friendly. But somehow, all of Skipper's men had a special relationship with him.

"Come on... It was here!" Kowalski shouted in despair. They turned towards him and saw him examining the wall. "I'm sure there is a possibility to unlock this secret door."

He had a stethoscope and was knocking against the wall, listening to the resonance. Until now he had found three different types of brick: the wall, the hidden door and the 'key'. But he hoped to find a fourth one; the one which was able to unlock the door again.

"Or wasn't I observant enough? Did Skipper use two different 'keys' and not just this one? REMEMBER, KOWALSKI!" He hit his head against the wall.

"Stop, Kowalski! This won't help you to remember anything." Marlene pulled him away from the wall. "You're only hurting yourself."

"The otter is right," Sverre agreed and touched the cold stone of the wall. He also tried to remember, and then had a go with a combination of bricks. "It is definitely locked – and not by the mechanism. Probably in addition to get Blue away from his men, Skipper wanted to ensure that they were not followed. The hidden paths behind the walls are too small for fighting; therefore Skipper most likely lured Blue into another part of the castle. The big question is where..."

During the fights, Rico had moved a long way in the direction of the entrance hall and now was the first to notice the approaching footsteps. He rushed back to his friends and gesticulating that there were more soldiers approaching. By the sound of the huge group of feet they knew that they had no chance to stand against the approaching squad of soldiers.

"This way!" Sverre turned away from the corridor leading towards the main entrance, when they heard guards and soldiers approaching from there too. He looked in the direction of the secret door, which was unfortunately locked. "We are trapped."

"The window," Rico suggested and looked outside to estimate the height. But there were guards too. "Oh. What now?"

Meanwhile they were surrounded by men, who were wearing uniforms and were armed by rapiers.

"These aren't Blue's men," Sverre answered. "These men belong to the crown."

Kowalski, Rico, Private and Marlene were able to see three little lions embroidered on the fabric.

"That's right, major. Now, would you please throw away your weapons," the deep voice, which they knew belonged to the public prosecutor, said, before he stepped to the front. Sverre and his soldiers did as asked and after a stern gaze in the direction of Kowalski and Rico, they followed the example.

"Before we arrest you due to acting as an accomplice, I need to show you something. You had asked for proof, Tawaki said. Here it is." Three pictures appeared in the flipper of the African Penguin.

Curious, Kowalski stepped to the front, thanked the prosecutor with a nod, and had a look at them. Immediately, a shadow appeared on his face, followed by grief. Rico, Marlene, Sverre, and his men gathered around the scientist, and the same thing happened to them.

"Let me see it too!"

But at the moment at which Private could have seen the contents of the photos, Kowalski covered his eyes. "You mustn't see this."

"What do you say now?" the prosecutor asked.

"I want to check the authenticity of the pictures. Who is this man here?" the scientist responded.

"That is Tjark. The younger son of the family."

"Are these the only pictures?"

"Yes."

"So, there are no pictures of the other... progression of events?"

The African penguin nearly smiled, when he thought that he knew now how witnesses must feel when he questioned them. But, as this was a very serious matter, he was able to control his body and simply answered, "No, there are not."

Kowalski nodded.

"Are these real, Kowalski?" Sverre asked.

"Give me a moment."

Rico looked after Private, so that he was not peeking at the photographs. As usual, the out-of-nowhere appearances and disappearances and scientific tools were endlessly coming and going, while all hope visibly dropped out of Kowalski's body and facial expression. Finally, the scientist looked as if he had aged a decade during his examination.

Heavy-hearted, he announced, "The pictures are real."


	20. Chapter 20: Defeated

Hello, my dear readers.

Finally, chapter 20! I was asked whether Hans will appear. Unfortunately: No. I came up with this idea before he had his debut and adding him wouldn't have been natural anymore, because it would have changed a lot. As you will see soon, that Skipper's dream actually foreshadowed already the conclusion and I hate changing the plotline afterwards. But I also miss him, because I liked his first appearance a lot.

Have fun reading chapter 20,

Yours Oxymora

**Chapter 20: Defeated**

In his memory, the stony, narrow path was much shorter than it appeared during their hunt. The secret passage had no lights, hence it was pitch dark, and he had to feel out the way. They had always used torches, but there had not been the time to light any. Sliding carefully along the rough ground, Skipper tried to lure Blue away from his friends into another part of the castle. There were markings on the floor, so that he knew when the path had a turn or when another exit was ahead. The sound of someone impinging on stone combined with not being caught up yet, convinced the captain that Blue wasn't familiar with this secret paths. Therefore he skipped to destroy the mechanisms of passing exits, as he had done it with their entrance. Blue had no other choice than following his prey.

Finally, he felt the long awaited mini bulge, which signalled a main exit. Skipper stopped right away and palpated the wall. He concentrated on his memories and the stone, blocking out the approaching Blue completely.

"Skipper must have stopped. I can't hear him sliding anymore," Blue thought. The next moment he passed one of the bulges. Meanwhile he had developed a theory of their meaning, but the shape of this one was new. He had no chance to analyse it further, because blinding, bright light suffused the passage. Immediately Blue stopped and covered his face, but his eyes, which had tried to adjust to the light conditions inside the pitch dark passage, burned already. Little stars began dancing in front of his closed lids.

By this time Skipper entered the armoury. The moment he had found the right spot to open the door, he had closed his eyes. Now he let them become accustomed to the light very slowly by opening them only a little. Bit by bit he walked through the passageways and observed the weapons. Since it was not allowed to shoot inside Frederiksberg – one of the former heads had decreed the 'firearm law' after his favourite tapestry had been perforated by the bullets of an anti-terrorism exercise – they only used all different kinds of ancient weapons. Some modern melee weapons could be found there too. And Skipper was able to handle all of them. However, he was tired and the wounded foot had started to hurt again. He hoped that his friends were finally clever enough to run away from Frederiksberg, but he knew they were not.

"Perhaps I have proof?" Skipper remembered Blue's fateful words. Inside of him everything convulsed by the thought of what those words could mean. But how? How was it possible? The only other person, who could possibly...

His movement froze. Suddenly everything became crystal clear in his mind. The golden thread, that pervaded the whole incident, gleamed in the new light of consideration. And this thread, Ariadne's thread, was able to lead the way out of the confusing maze and showed a guarantee for his friends' safety. However, the prise was high...

He was startled out of his thoughts by the tingle of his back. It was an inoculated ability, which informed him of being watched or attacked from behind.

"Ready for death?" Blue's voice asked.

"Sure..." Skipper replied. He was indeed.

"The armoury. We are surrounded by deadly weapons. Good choice. This is an amazing place for our final fight," Blue stated amused.

"It's not the weapon that kills people."

"You should know, eh?"

Skipper pressed his beak together. Things had to come to an end now, he knew it. There was no possibility of delay any longer – and even if, he didn't want to. Prepared he turned around to face the man, who had chased him for so long. "You have a picture of Tjark and me, I guess."

"Yes, indeed." It was visible in his eyes that he had. And that he had no need to fake it. The ka-bar in his flipper and the off-standing feathers – probably due to his many collisions with the wall – and the dusty film, gave him a crazed appearance. "I could arrest you now... again. However, there is no point in reading your rights. You are a dead man already, Skipper; therefore you don't have any rights. No one will care if I kill you now and here."

Lightning-fast, he moved and the knife pierced the wood next to Skipper's head. The captain had not moved the slightest inch.

"But I want to be fair."

Skipper eyed himself in the reflecting blade. Was that guilt in his eyes? "You only want to feel adrenaline running through your veins. As usual."

"Don't tell me you weren't missing our little dances..."

Skipper smiled. "They were always the best." He pulled the ka-bar out of the wood. "I won't turn this invitation down. Let the music play; I'm in the mood of leading today."

"Leading? You should be happy if you can pace yourself." Another combat knife appeared in Blue's flipper.

Prepared for an attack they encircled each other.

Skipper was familiar with Blue's tactics, which usually contained very risky but effective movements. The moment they found their aim, their result was fatal. This had caused Skipper's defeat once, and his chances were smaller than during their previous fight. But somehow, it inspired him. He was at a disadvantage, but he surely wouldn't lose without a proper fight. While they lay in wait for an opportunity to attack, Skipper concentrated on their surroundings. If he would only be able to rely on his body strength, he would be lost; therefore, he needed help. He needed a trick to weaken Blue or a possibility to win this confrontation fast.

"And I shouldn't move a lot," Skipper thought. Now that he was standing still and concentrating, the pain pounded even stronger through his foot. He was sure Blue noticed that he shifted his weight to relieve his leg, but it couldn't be helped. He feared that, otherwise, his foot wouldn't maintain the position any longer. He returned his concentration towards the armoury. There were rows of racks, each storing weapons upon weapons. However, Skipper wasn't able to use more than one at the same time, and in his situation, the ka-bar was the perfect weapon already. Light, easy to handle, yet dangerous. There were also banners of the royal academy, which decorated the wall. Simple ceiling lights illuminated the room. There was no open fire. A few suits of armour were positioned in a well-defined distance to each other, but Skipper knew they were unmovable. In case of an emergency, the decoration could not collapse and block the path if someone crashed against it. And this was all. If he had a team at his side now, it would be an easy task. But Kowalski and his options, Rico and his never ending surprises, as well as Private and his strong heart were far away. But this was the challenge.

"My spirit is back," he thought and couldn't resist smiling.

Blue returned the smile. "Yes, Skipper. This will end today. You know that I noticed you shifting your weight away from your wounded food and eyed this room for a trick. You reached your limit."

"You have no idea where my limits are."

"Stubborn until the very end," Blue shook his head. "You've never learn..."

"Blue… If you want to chat, you should give the hen party a visit," Skipper interrupted, and started his first attack. "In the military, we talk via action."

He nearly hit the little penguin, but although he was surprised, he was able to dodge the knife. Skipper rolled forwards and heaved himself up on the rack.

"And your action is flight, Skipper?"

While the captain had difficulty to reach the top without using his second foot, Blue jumped easily upon it.

"This is somehow sad. The great Skipper… Not even able to do simple pull-ups."

Panting, the captain looked at his opponent. In his mind, he secretly set his sights on his target, who limped another step and repositioned. Blue saw him tightening his grip around the handle and instantly knew Skipper was preparing something. He easily sidestepped, and the ka-bar soughed through the air and hit the wall; the captain's foot buckled, and he fell down behind the rack.

"Oh Skipper… Skipper… This is no dance." Blue waddled to the point where his opponent had been standing a second ago and looked downwards. There, his prey was lying defenceless. With a simple jump, he was standing next to him. "This isn't even fun."

Skipper panted and looked at his enemy. But there was another sound, which hadn't been there before. Like something tearing apart, and when it ended there was a short scraping. A smile appeared on Skipper's beak and Blue understood immediately that it had been a trap. The captain leaped aside while the heavy banner fell onto Blue. The ka-bar had partially torn the cord that kept the banners up on the wall and the weight had done the rest. However, the cords of the flags were in fact one single cord and now that the thread was tattered all of them had dropped down. Skipper unarmed Blue immediately and fettered him with the cord, before the Little Blue Penguin was able to return.

"This was it, Blue." Skipper sat down in front of his enemy. This time his panting was real. He was exhausted and needed time to recover.

"Are you sure about that?" his enemy asked.

"Well… You are…"

The captain wasn't able to say more. Two strong flippers grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Sir, are you alright?" Tawaki asked, and unfettered his superior. He and a brawny African penguin, who was now restraining Skipper, had just entered the fighting scene. Due to his perspective, Skipper had not seen them approaching.

"Yes… I was just too sure about my victory for a moment. Lesson learned. Skipper… As someone who always seeks the direct fight, this was a refreshing action. Until the very end, you were able to surprise me."

"Thank you for the complement. However, I cannot return it."

Blue picked up his knife smiling. "Well… you could say 'Congratulations, you won'."

"Okay… congratulations, you defeated one wounded person with the help of two others. Very heroic."

Blue's triumphant smile vanished. He snorted scornfully and built himself up in front of Skipper.

"Actually it doesn't matter what you say. After all, you won't be able to say anything anymore in a minute. You remember? They sentenced you to death, and I am very willing to fulfil your punishment now."

"That's against the law."

"Yeah… but unfortunately you won't be able to testify what really happened in here."

Skipper pressed his beak together. "Do I still have my last wish?" he asked.

"Sure… I guess."

"Let my friends leave Denmark unharmed. They don't know how huge the hornet's nest is, they try to stir up."

"Letting your friends go…" A fiendish smirk appeared on Blue's face. "I guess I can do that. But only if you say, that I always was the best."

"Oh gosh…" Skipper thought. "Little men and their inferiority complexes… seconds ago he said he wasn't caring."

"Blue… Between the two of us, you were ALWAYS the best. I admit my inferiority… and defeat."

The words didn't miss the mark. For Blue they seemed to be like the first sunshine after a long winter night.

"I will always remember these words, Skipper. And – because I am such a generous person – I will let your men and friends leave Denmark."

"Promise."

"I promise."

Skipper hoped that Blue would keep his word, but on the other hand, there was no reason for not doing it. If he wanted to punish Skipper, he would have told him that his friends had to suffer, too. Bowing to Blue – even only by words – had saved his friends, just as he had hoped. And after all, it was his dying wish. After all, Blue wasn't the person, who wouldn't grant it.

"Was this all?" Blue asked, as if the crime, he was about to commit, was daily work.

"In fact no…" Skipper replied. "There is one last thing I would like to ask you."


	21. Chapter 21: Feather of Maat's Weight

Hi readers,

As this is the chapter most of you have waited for, I just won't go all yadda yadda yadda again.

Have fun reading! ^.^

Yours, Oxymora

.

**Chapter 21: Feather of Maat's Weight**

Heavy-hearted, Kowalski announced, "The pictures are real."

"What does that mean?" Marlene asked, desperate, hoping that the brainiac would come up with another explanation.

But looking down the scientist was unable to give another reason than: "He killed that boy… Marlene. That's what it means."

"NO! Skipper would never do something like that!" Private shouted. "Check them again! You must have missed something... or… or they are outstandingly good forgery!"

Private held fast to Kowalski's flipper. His huge, sad eyes looked at his superior begging for excuses, who just wanted to avoid the look by turning away. He heard Rico moaning behind him and his new-found friends dropping their weapons. After all this trouble they should face the fact that Skipper never had been the person they had thought he was? This wasn't fair… this wasn't even believable.

"Kowalski, check it again!" Marlene demanded. "You MUST have missed something."

"Kowalski didn't miss anything. That is Skipper," Freija-Solveig announced. "And yes, he killed my brother Tjark."

They all turned around and looked at her. She was approaching from the direction of the hall, and Marlene caught herself thinking that she had a majestic appearance. Guards, carrying Julien and his men, who were surprisingly calm, were following her the whole way until they reached the waiting crowd. Although Kowalski had a lot of questions, he kept quiet. Intuitively, he knew that finally, someone was telling what really happened that night. There was no doubt about Skipper's misdoing anymore; therefore the only question was why he had done it. But Freija-Solveig let them wait for her explanation until she had reached the group. She nodded in the direction of her guards, who let go of Julien, Maurice and Mort. The lemurs rushed to stand next to their penguin friends.

"I wonder why he is so calm," Kowalski said to no one particular.

"I showed him how we dance in Denmark," the head answered. There was a certain smirk around her beak which told Kowalski, that Julien had not liked it. The next moment she was more sober again.

"Sverre and your men, Kowalski and your men, Julien and your men, and Marlene. I am impressed of your faith. I want to tell you and the people of the academy and the whole of Denmark what really happened that night. I cannot look on helplessly as one of the noblest men I know is hunted down and blamed being a terrorist and traitor." She paused for a moment. It was obviously not easy for her to continue. "This picture and the accusations concerning this crime are true; Skipper killed my brother Tjark. I was present when it happened."

The prosecutor moved, but then decided to stay calm until Freija-Solveig had finished her story.

And so she continued: "But it was no cold-blooded murder. Skipper saved me. It wasn't Skipper who killed my honourable parents; it was Tjark. And then he also wanted to kill me." The memory of that night returned. It was the night of a storm tide, and she had been unable to find sleep. Her intuition had told her that something odd had been going on at the academy, but her parents had not had an open ear for her 'pipe dreams'. And then the door had opened and her brother had been standing there, with a wild countenance. Her own words sounded, for her, far away, like a narrator telling her story from her point of view, while the pictures of that night continuously proceed in front of her eyes. "But somehow, Skipper must have felt my need and came. He fought Tjark. Usually Skipper would have won easily, but that night my little brother's rage must have raised his morale. And then… it was an accident. Defending our – his and mine – lives Skipper… Skipper…" – seeing the scene in her memories, she was unable to continue for a moment – "Suddenly there was blood everywhere. And my brother was dead. The knife, with which he had killed my parents and with which he wanted to kill me too, was protruded from his body."

She paused and tried to calm herself down again.

"Why haven't you said that before?" the prosecutor asked. He tried to speak with a soft voice, but he was too used to interrogation already, and failed.

Freija-Solveig looked at him, calm and collected. "My brother would have never done something like that on his own. Yes, perhaps my parents cared more for me, because I was the one who had to assume the office of the head. I was more qualified and had a good rapport with the cadets and trainers, and my brother was jealous from time to time. But this? No… no…" – she shook her head –"Someone put that bug in his ear. And until today we have no idea who that person is. And whoever that person is seeks the aim to become head. And we feared that he might turn the affair around – after all, now I would be the only survivor – and claimed me to have killed my parents and my brother, together with Skipper, saying that we could not have waited any longer to 'rule' this place. And if you remember correctly, people were indeed pointing flippers at me. To save me and the reputation of my family and the academy, Skipper left, shouldering the blame and hatred. After all, this place was his family. My parents were his parents. My brother was his little brother. Even if people believed us, how would everyone had remembered Tjark? Although he did this awful crime, we wanted to perpetuate his memory as a well serving, caring young man." She paused again and thought of her brother and the help he had been for so many people. "But we didn't know that there was evidence. Obviously this person, who had goaded my brother, had been there that night. Years have passed since then and he is still not the head of this school. I guess he became impatient and wanted to quicken everything. I even think he planned that I would stand up and tell everyone about this matter, if Skipper was in danger. I already wanted to do that and went to see Skipper and tell him, but he argued me out of it. But I wasn't able to stay quiet any longer."

Marlene went up to her and put her arm around her.

"I thank you for telling us this. I don't know what other people might say," she looked in the direction of the prosecutor, "but we believe you."

"Yes. That is indeed something Skipper would do," Kowalski nodded.

"Thank you. I'm sorry I said it this late." Freija-Solveig smiled and hugged Marlene. "Where is Skipper, by the way? I thought he was here!"

Sverre pointed at the wall, where the secret entry was. "He lured Blue away from us."

"Do you mean to say that Skipper is alone with that revenge seeking, fighting cock? Oh sorry, I forgot my language."

"Yes."

"Oh… This is bad. This is really bad," she shook her head.

.

"A last question?" Blue asked. "I guess I know what that one is."

"Did you goad Tjark?" Skipper asked. "Are you the one destroying this honourable family?"

"Dead people cannot talk. And Tawaki and Bent know about my aims anyway. So why not tell you?" Blue was very close to Skipper's face. "Yes… yes, it was me."

"YOU!" The captain wanted to launch himself on Blue, but the African penguin was too strong. "You…"

"Be careful. Remember that the lives of your men are in my flipper," the Little Penguin warned.

To his annoyance, Skipper slugged down the words he wanted to hurl at Blue. The lives of his men had a higher value than some abuses. And in fact, he had what he wanted. The hidden 'Skipper's log' was recording the whole conversation without Blue noticing it and the pathologist would find it later.

"I have no chance to cheat death this time, but at least the real villain will be punished too," Skipper thought.

Blue looked at him, a little worried. First, Skipper feared that he might have figured out the plan, but the Little Penguin had something else in mind: "I'm curious. How did you know it was me?"

"You are the only one who benefits. And then the pictures… This is so your style," Skipper answered.

"Hmm… Well, things didn't really go as planned. Back then, you, nowadays, your men. You guys really ruined my perfect plan."

"Obviously, those were no perfect plans," Skipper only thought.

"But that is over now." Blue raised his ka-bar for the deathblow.

And stabbed out.


	22. Chapter 22: Rescue

Hi readers!

I got the feeling that I might have confused you. Probably with 'finally, chapter 20!', I guess. I'm sorry. I was only relieved that I was able to finish and upload the climax. This story finishes with its 24th chapter and not a chapter earlier. Don't worry. ^.^

Thank you for all the comments! I really appreciate it.

Have fun reading!

Yours Oxymora

.

**Chapter 22: Rescue**

"It is a good day to die," Skipper thought, the moment Blue raised the ka-bar. His passion for the Wild West recalled this famous exhortation by Crazy Horse at the battle of the Little Bighorn.

Skipper regretted nothing.

"Well, perhaps not nothing; for example I should have kicked Julien back home, to Madagascar" he corrected himself. Not without thinking that Kowalski would have probably asked, if this wasn't too much of a cliché for Skipper, he saw his life passing by. His childhood had been a mess, his drill demanding and his few years of feeling home at the academy or in New York short. But he couldn't moan. He had seen places, which other people thought were only fairy tales. He had been to Antarctica, felt deep love and found friends of trust. He had enjoyed the adventures – regardless of his teams; they all had been good men. And if the integrity of the academy was saved by his sacrifice, he could die without bringing a child into the world. He had never told anyone else than Freija-Solveig about this, but he had wanted to have a son. Of course only later, when he had been thinking that the 'right time' had come.

"Surprising how slow time goes by during life-threatening moments," he wondered. All these thoughts had gone through his head for the duration of one single wink, and had cut out all unnecessary noises – which were in fact all. Skipper felt a peace, he had never felt before; although the deadly tip of a knife was heading straight at his unprotected chest. The ceiling lighting was reflected in the metal, and dazzled him. For a second he wasn't able to see anything, but he could have sworn that there had been a shadow…

…and the expected pain stayed out.

Instead, he saw Blue struggling with another penguin the next moment. Skipper was immediately aware who it was.

"Manfredi!" he shouted. "If you are here, then…"

Another penguin appeared. He had not the moment of surprise, but the moment of confusion on his side. Bent's brain was still digesting the sudden appearance of two manipulated soldiers, when a hard kick threw him across the room. He let go of Skipper, who had been prepared for this moment, but his body was too weak for smoothly breaking the fall.

"Johnson…"

"Not a moment too soon, Sir," he helped his former leader to stand up.

"You can bet on that. Behind you…"

Tawaki launched himself on the soldier; but thanks to Skipper, Johnson was prepared. With an Aikido throw he used the enemy's attack against himself. It was the not-so-well-trained penguin's first 'flight' and his landing was respectively. He collided with his colleague, who was about to get up again. They tumbled.

Johnson wiped down the imaginary dirt from his beak, thinking it looked cool, and said: "Is that all? Well then, let's finish this unnecessary fight."

The penguin had been raised by a special tribe of penguins, which weren't living near the sea, but exploring the rainforest of South America. There Johnson was one of the few penguins that knew how to eat fresh-water fish without hurting the throat. But if something was unhandy in that huge, uncultivated garden, it was a big weapon – but weapons defended not only ones life, but also helped to find food. As a conclusion they invented blowguns, which were practical, deadly and easy to hide, and contracted with the native poison frogs to use their poison for the darts. As usual the humans stole the idea and declared it as their own invention.

Johnson pulled out one of his old blowguns and aimed. One anaesthetic dart hit Tawaki and Bent each, and while they still tried to return to the battle, they collapsed into a deep slumber.

"I tell you Skipper, this blowgun is more useful than all the weapons in here and these modern darts, you guys use."

"If you say so." The captain turned. "How is Manfredi. Shouldn't we help him?"

He spotted them fighting in some distance and wanted to limp in their direction, but Johnson hold him back.

"You did enough. Let us finish this. That's the least we can do. There is no apology for being stupid enough to believe Blue instead of trusting a man, who we served with."

"You saved my life. I think we are square," Skipper tried to play it down. He wasn't angry at all.

Johnson shook his head, but didn't respond. The sense of guilt was so strong that Skipper imagined feeling his friends' emotions.

"In case they wake up" Johnson pointed into the direction of the two sleeping penguins "send them back to Hypnos." He handed over his blowgun and left, before Skipper was able to refuse to take the weapon Johnson usually never put down.

This gesture symbolised more than any words his friends had been able to say during the residual of their lives. Skipper sat down and leaned against the wall. He needed some rest and what was better than a live battle as chill-out?

.

"I sent Manfredi and Johnson to arrest Tawaki, who was in the security room. I hope they saw Skipper and Blue fighting." Freija-Solveig's eyes were filled with tears. "We have to hurry now."

She turned around, but due to her troubled emotions unable to remember in which direction the armoury was located.

"Here!" Sverre took the lead and headed along the corridor, when four figures were silhouetted against the corridor. Seconds later they were identifiable.

"SKIP!" Freija-Solveig passed Sverre and flung her flippers around his neck. He wobbled a little, but was able to steady his footing again.

"Frej," he laughed. "Be careful. I'm wounded."

He returned her embrace. Finally, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Marlene, Julien, Maurice and Mort reached Skipper and after the two penguins let go of each other, they hugged their friend too. Tears of joy were running down Marlene's cheeks.

Manfredi passed them. With a fettered Blue in tow, he went up to Sverre. "I guess this is your job now."

"You guess right. Soldier, shove him in jail, before anyone harms him."He addressed one of his men.

"I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" Blue shouted and tried to free himself.

"Yeah… yeah… you are cliché. And you live in danger. People storm even more against you now, than they had stormed against Skipper."

Blue pressed his beak together and stayed calm.

"I'm really surprised that he is still alive. How was he able to not die 'accidentally'?" Sverre asked.

"We aren't like him," Manfredi responded, while looking out of the window.

"A happy end then?"

Manfredi turned around and looked at Freija-Solveig, Skipper and his friends. "Looks like it, yes. But not for all of us." He left.


	23. Chapter 23: The Oath

Hi readers!

Here comes finally chapter 23.

Yours Oxymora

.

**Chapter 23: The Oath**

Skipper stood at the window, a warm mug of fish flavoured coffee between his flippers, and watched the training cadets. One of them was Private, who had followed Skipper's recommendation to participate in the Danish training, since he had found it most promising for both, basic skills and special techniques. They had accepted Private and took it as the perfect opportunity to compare their constitution with an abroad representative. Seeing the young penguins working out, caused Skipper's body to tingle for thirst of action. He wanted to return to his own training schedule, but he was still compelled to give his body some rest – according to Freija-Solveig and the doctors. Whenever he had the chance, he seized the moment of being unwatched and exercised secretly. What he didn't know was that Freija-Solveig was aware of it.

It was midmorning and not only the cadets, but everyone was busy with his work. But this day was special. The Danes had not decided what to do with Blue yet, but their hate for Skipper had turned into adoration and they wanted to show redress. As far as it was possible to prepare festivities that should not be noticed by humans, they decorated and organise one of the rarest ceremonies in Denmark.

"And… are you prepared, Skip?" Freija-Solveig asked, and appeared beside Skipper.

"I hope it won't take long," he sighed.

She laughed. "Don't worry. It will."She looked out of the window and eyed the city. "After all, you are a hero now."

"It is surprising how fast people can veer their opinion."

They had not wanted to announce the whole truth about the incident, but had developed a story that blamed the guilty without involving Tjark's complicity and restored Skipper's reputation.

"Now that you are free from charge, do you plan to stay here?"

Their eyes met.

"Do you think I can continue as if nothing had happened?" he asked.

"No. Of course not. Things did change here and now the academy needs a strong leader."

"The academy has already a strong leader."

They lapsed into silence and watched the cadets again.

"I missed Denmark. It was a good time here," Skipper remarked, and then added quickly. "And I missed you." He eyed the fish in his coffee. "I have to think about it. Perhaps a save nest wouldn't be the worst after all. But you need to know… I have been married already."

"Really? Who would be crazy enough to do that?"

"Don't ask."

But she insisted and so he told her. Her laughter was so loud that the cadets stopped their exercise and turned curiously towards the source of the disturbance. It was only a small break, after their supervisor rebuked them to focus on their training, and only on their training. Freija-Solveig was halfway on the road to suffocation when she finally was able to calm and breathe again. She supported herself against the wall, panting.

"Whenever I think you cannot surprise me anymore, you won't fail to just do it," she said. "Oh, come on. Don't give me that affronted look."

"Can we just quit this discussion?"

"Not until you tell me what happened to her."

"Las Vegas. That happened to her…"

Although she wanted to make out the whole story of 'doll', she held back her curiosity. It was obvious that it was a matter Skipper disliked talking about.

"Is there another woman in your life now?"

He shook his head. "There had been, but I'm single now."

"What about the otter?"

"Marlene? She's a mammal!" he said it as if it explained everything. "We are just friends. She's my neighbour. How about you? I never saw a man at your side, but that doesn't mean there is none."

She was about to answer, when a voice resounded over the place. "Party, everyone. Party!"

"Julien…" Skipper sighed.

He wasn't even able to finish uttering the name, before the lemur appeared on the training ground. "This is no time for your silly, non-aesthetic movements. Where is this lady-principal of yours? I want to challenge her to a return! Maurice, music me!"

The king's right hand man did as asked and suddenly not only a ghetto blaster, but a whole mixer with amplifier and speakers appeared. To the great displeasure of the trainer the ring tailed lemur started dancing between, and to the even greater displeasure of the cadets themselves, also on the trainees.

"Julien… Julien, please, I need to ask you to…" Private tried to start a friendly, but most effectless request, before the dancer grabbed the wing and forced the little penguin to pirouette. Afterwards he was too afraid that if he tried to open his beak again, not words would leave it.

"Challenging a return? What have you done?" Skipper asked.

"I danced with him. And I might have demanded too much of him. At least he begged for mercy after a few minutes." She giggled, and he shared her amusement. Not only, because he liked when Julien was cut down to size as he himself had done it several times, but also was he delighted at Freija-Solveig's perkily streak.

"I would have loved to see that."

"I dare say. Actually I was surprised. I thought you wouldn't like people like him."

"Yes. Funny, isn't it? And still I see him as somewhat like a buddy. I guess I start to sissify. Even my men do not follow my orders anymore. I told them to leave, and yet they stayed and put themselves into danger to save their commander."

"No Skipper. They put themselves into danger to save a friend. It's a remarkable team."

Skipper grunted disapproving, but Freija-Solveig knew that he was proud, and not willing to show it, however.

They watched Kowalski and Rico trying to catch Julien now. They were as effortless as Private had been.

"Do they know your little secret? Your background?"

Skipper shook his head. "No. The fewer people know the better. If it was possible I would get it off my mind too."

"Good you can't. Forgetting the past isn't right."

"Blaming the son neither."

Freija-Solveig nodded. "I know."

Meanwhile Julien was dancing his way through a dozen cadets that tried to stop him. Skipper wondered whether they, he and his men, had rubbed off on the lemur, and decided fast that Julien had just much more luck than judgement.

The academy leader shook disbelieving her head. "I guess I have to leave now. There is a rampaging king waiting for me. See you later."

She kissed Skipper's cheek and left.

He drank the rest of the meanwhile cooled down coffee, taking in the view of Copenhagen. On the planet existed only two places where he felt home: The academy and Central Park Zoo. He had often thought about this during the last days of his recovery. That he had missed the academy and Freija-Solveig had not been a lie.

"Am I really reflecting about staying in Denmark?" he asked himself. Only a few weeks ago he would not have thought about setting a foot onto this land's soil.

.

An hour and a lemur king's defeat later Skipper joined up with his friends. They were sitting in the Swiss Cottage of Frederiksberg Park enjoying nature and a picnic lunch. That means, all except for Julien, who was so worn out that he wasn't able to move even one single muscle and therefore just lay on the rug. He was even too tired to notice Mort hugging his feet.

"How was the training, young private?" the captain asked, helping himself to some food. He started with a dark slice of bread and added some herring on top of it.

"Challenging…" the little penguin remarked; his exhaustion was resonating in the voice. "Very challenging."

"Then it was a good training."

They watched Skipper adding more and more food onto the bread, which was about to get hidden by the toppings. Fish, small slices of cheese, onions, salad, more fish, shrimps.

"Skipper?" Kowalski asked.

"Yes." Finally he added some chive.

"What is… that?"

"A smørrebrød. You use a slice of bread and put everything that your appétit wishes onto it," the captain explained. He examined his work satisfied and in the next moment it was gone with one morsel.

Rico was already building his own food tower, aiming to surpass his superior. "Yummy." Kowalski moved over, eyeing the growing hill of ingredients. Fearing that the rest of their lunch would ever end up in Rico's infinite stomach or spread all over the rug after the swaying Pisa-tower- smørrebrød had toppled over, he gathered the rest of the fish he wanted to eat.

"Say, Skipper." Private looked over his shoulder. It wasn't the first time that he saw two female cadets eyeing and talking about him. After their discovery, they giggled and left.

"Is there something wrong with me?"

Skipper had seen them too, and more important he had been able to understand the Danish words. "Quite the opposite. They said you were cute and cuddly. It seems as if you have a little fan club here."

The young private would have blushed if penguins had been able to do it. "Oh, is that so?" He felt much more encouraged now to approach the girls. Highly motivated he reached for the sardines and found only oil. It was the moment when the last sardine disappeared in Rico's beak.

"Now that we are already talking about weird behaviours. What is all this ceremony preparation about?" Marlene asked curious. "Everyone is far too busy to explain it."

"They want to bestow me with the _Elefantordenen_."

Kowalski gasped. "The Order of the Elephant? The highest order in Denmark? But isn't it exclusively bestowed on royalties and heads of states?" His voice executed a climb to high voice.

"Ah yes, I heard of it," agreed Maurice. "But I'm surprised that you know about it, Kowalski."

"The others would know about it too, if… THEY WOULD PLAY TRIVIA WITH ME!" The scientist turned around, being trifle annoyed and muttered undistinguishable words in his not existing beard feathers.

"That is really impressive, Skipper," the king's right hand man said. "An honour that definitely serves you right."

Marlene nodded. "I was impressed. You would have sacrificed you life for..." The word 'her' was right on the otter's tongue, but she somehow wasn't able to let it pass her lips.

Skipper shook his head. "They really overdo it now. I did nothing special. It was my oath as soldier and I promised Søren and Alia, Freija-Solveig's parents, to look after their daughter. There is not more behind it."

"Captain Skipper! Captain Skipper!" a voice sounded over the grass. All turned around and saw a penguin jogging into their direction. He arrived only half a minute later. "Would you please come with me? We need you for some preparations."

"Sure. Okay, folks. See you later then." They departed together.

He left behind silence and the calming sound of purling water.

Finally Kowalski opened his beak: "There is a ship leaving for New York City this evening during the ceremony."

"You want to run away secretly?" Private looked at him angry.

"Don't you see how difficult it is for him? This was his home. And this can be his home again. But he also doesn't want to say good-bye to us; however, we have a job to do in New York."

"Do you really think he wants to stay?" Marlene asked.

Kowalski nodded: "I'm very positive. He has a life and wife here."

Private eyed the fibres of the rag. He hoped it would distract his eyes from the emerging wish to cry. "Then Skipper needn't decide between his homes and say good-bye."

"Yes."

Silence returned for several minutes and a cool whiff of sea surrounded the friends. It was as if the nature itself wanted to point out their fate.


	24. Chapter 24: The Quartet  The Captain

Hi my dear readers,

This is it. This is the last chapter. *sniff* This is the epilogue. And therefore I have a lot of things I want to say. But first things first. The Chapter!

Therefore ladies and gentlemen, have fun reading!

Yours Oxymora

**Chapter 24: The Quartet – The Captain**

The waves pitched and tossed the ship, and while some found it calming like a cradle, others – or rather only Julien – felt sea sick as soon as they had left the shielding harbour. It was the first night on water, since the ship had hoist anchor only a few hours ago, and there were a lot more nights until their arrival in the US.

"Why are we using a ship and not a plane?" Julien asked. He wasn't feeling well at all. Rico regurgitated a bowl – just in case – and pushed the lemur into a corner of their temporary living and sleeping room. To have a more comfortable journey, the group was sitting in a container filled with pillows and one single lantern out of Rico's always surprising stomach was attached to the ceiling. They left the container only to get some food supply or to perform ones ablutions.

"We need a special authorisation to use a plane, as sneaking into a plane is more difficult than sneaking into a ship. Therefore flying is only possible in case of missions of the category R, S and O," Kowalski explained. "And as this is no mission and as we are not in an emergency situation, we have to take the ship."

"This is an emergency. Your king is nearly half dea…" The rest of the sentence was overtaken by his dinner.

"But that's not a penguin emergency. Don't worry. You'll get used to the swells soon…" he lowered his voice. "or to the vomiting. Either works."

Marlene started to ask curiously what a mission of the category R, S and O was, but she stopped in the middle of her question, when Skipper's voice appeared in her head answering: "That's classified information, Marlene. No one except of a penguin – and definitely no mammal – must even know the code."

After a few seconds of hesitation, she sighed and said: "Do you think Skipper has already noticed that we are gone?"

Using the starting party as a distraction, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Marlene, Julien, Maurice and Mort had left the academy – Julien rather forced. In his opinion a party without the king was an incomplete party. And he still sought for a return dance. They had not met Skipper again as he had been too busy with the festivities, but had left a short recording to explain why they went back to US without him.

"He would force us to extra training sessions," Kowalski joked. First the tree penguins laughed, but then they felt a cold shiver running down their backs.

"Oh, the most exhausting training ever…" Private said, and Rico nodded in agreement. They trembled with fear, picturing their punishment as a combination of most vigorous, long exercises and a lack of time off for hobbies.

Marlene saw their drop of the mood and wanted to cheer them after. After all it had been her that raised the subject. "I guess Kowalski won't be such a strict captain."

"The army is a little bit more complicate than that, Marlene. I'm not experienced enough. We'll get another captain for our unit. That's for sure," Kowalski explained.

A loud sound of something heavy hitting the container brought all of them back to their feet.

"What was that?" Private asked; the fear was hearable present in this voice.

And there something heavy hit the container again. Marlene, Private and Julien screamed.

"Please tell me you have some good explanations, Kowalski!" Marlene begged.

"Well… I don't think you want to hear them. They all contain only a slow, terrif…"

"KOWALSKI! NO HELP!"

Patient they waited for another hit, but there were only the creaking of the ship, the pitching of the engine and the distant rushing of the sea and the wind.

"Perhaps we should go outside and check the situation," Kowalski suggest.

They gave him a weird look.

"Nothing is more terrifying than the lack of knowledge!" he explained.

"And what if there is something horrible waiting for us out there?" Private asked.

The scientist tried to give them a confident look. "Or it is just something that is loose." But the idea of a space squid waiting for them and its revenge outside the contained made him sound less positive. However, there was no other chance. "So let's go outside. Are you penguins, or mammals?"

"You are right!" Private and Rico agreed and rediscovered their courage.

Marlene looked at them offended. "Ehm… excuse me?"

But the birds ignored her and positioned around the entrance door. If there was something evil behind, they were prepared to face and fight it; latter with everything they had.

"On my mark," Kowalski whispered. The other two nodded. Slowly he opened the lever mechanism without causing any sound. "NOW!" he shouted and pushed open the door.

Marlene and the lemurs watched anxious how the penguins jumped into the literally and figuratively darkness that awaited them outside. For a brief moment nothing happened. But shortly after the terrified and pained outcries reached them. Marlene started to spurt towards the door. Her friends were obviously in danger and needed help. She wasn't sure how she could help them, but anything was better than just standing there listing to their suffering.

"Something horrible must be out there!" Mort snuggled against the royal feet. If he was to die now he at least wanted to die hugging 'his' beloved feet.

Julien's reflex of kicking his subject away was not activated yet, and Marlene was not yet at the door, when the penguins sailed back into the container. A fourth figure stood next to them and looked really angry.

"You know the penguin credo! And no… I don't want to hear anything about biscuits now!" Skipper shouted. "I'm not even able to train and teach three penguins; how should I run an academy then?"

"Skipper?" Kowalski turned around and looked up at his commander. "How… why?"

"Do you think I have not noticed that there was something cooking?" He closed the door behind him noisily.

"And the presentation?" Private ask.

"Not so important."

"And Freija-Solveig?" wondered Marlene.

"She can take care of herself. Something these birds definitely cannot do. You were very right about my reaction to your sneaky disappearance. I have to double the training sessions and there will be an addition punishment training session. My little joke right now was just the very beginning." Skipper really looked angry.

The penguins groaned.

Marlene approached until she stood right next to the captain. "And you want to return to US instead of staying in Denmark?"

"There is a lot of unfinished business. I won't allow anyone to say I took flight. Especially not that evil dolphin." Of course there was another reason, but he was too angry to tell those, who had left without him, that he already decided to return to his new life.

"I thought you had been in love with Freija-Solveig!"

"Who told you that?" Skipper looked at Marlene surprised.

"Aren't you engaged?"

Skipper giggled. "Oh yes. Yes, we were. But that was our parents' decision. We grew up together and hit it off with each other – and I'm not only talking here about the missing Hans Christian Andersen's statue's head." He tried to look innocent, but a small smile was still visible on his beak when he remembered the good old times. "Luckily one of the caretakers of the academy helped us to restore it before anyone noticed it." With a wink he was back in the present. "Nevertheless, Soeren, Frej's father, and my mother decided that we should marry, but we were never asked."

Kowalski looked surprised. "You put your head on the line for her! Don't your actions show that your feelings for her are based on those of a couple…"

"…or siblings." Skipper added. "That's why Tjark hated me. He thought she and I were more like sister and brother, than she and he could ever had been. I noticed it too late, unfortunately. And, Frej has fallen in love with someone else. I hope Manfredi has finally noticed that his amorous ambitions are not one-way."

"Manfredi?" Julien pictured the relatively not-so-well looking penguin.

"Yes. And he's done a lot to be noticed by her." Skipper sighed before he continued. "Love is a dangerous game. But it is worth the risk."

"But now, let's go to bed. Training starts soon tomorrow!"

"Wait Skipper, there is one more think I do not understand. During the rehearsal you refused to say it. What is your real name now?" Marlene held him back.

Skipper froze in his action. Wanting it too sound as unperturbed as possible he answered: "I completely forgot. As far as I can remember people always called me Skipper."

"I need to remind you Skipper that a penguin gets his name by the time he finishes his first moulting. The brain and the memory is so well developed by then that forgetting the name is nearly impossible," Kowalski stated.

"I think what Kowalski wants to say is that he's not buying your lie," Marlene translated. "And he's not the only one."

The others nodded.

Skipper smiled. "Well. Then I can only say that it is a secret. The story would be too long for this boat trip anyway and we already look back on an incident that would take a little more than two years to tell."

While the others begged for the story, Kowalski just stood there. He had a suspicion that Skipper's refusal to tell his name, G.A.'s story and the auk's help and feeling of guilt somehow matched together. And now that he eyed his captain up, he thought to see little similarities between him and Erlendur, the penguin traitor. Was it really possible?

"Give up. You know very well that he is too stubborn to tell anything he doesn't want to tell," the scientist said. Even if he was right about Skipper's father, it wouldn't make any difference.

"We are glad you are back, Skipper."

"You won't be by tomorrow."

~The End~

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Yadda yadda:

Characters that appear to be the same as the one from Penguins of Madagascar belong to those awesome people of Dream Works.

I tried to explain and solve misunderstandings. If anyone else feels insulted during this story, I really want to point out again: If anything, I used stereotypes or jokes. Never was it my intention to do so. Btw, I'm a fan of Hans Christian Andersen, as his stories were a pillar of my childhood.

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Acknowledgements

A huge thank you to my beta readers, King Julien (who wasn't able to continue after a few chapters unfortunately), my German friend (who always did the first beta-reading) and MusicBullet.

I yield penguinfan19 thanks. Thank you very much for always commenting. It really meant a lot to me, although I never answered to your comments.

But not only pf19 deserves credit; all (ghost) readers and comment writers were awesome. I needed two years (and a little) to write this story and it is incredible that you stayed with me. I really really thank you! Without you I would not have made it until here!

Yours Oxymora

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Edit 2013/12/01: There is a sequel to this story, which is called: "File Number: Tippy Top Secret"


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